Out Loud
by izbee617
Summary: Because he cares. Because he didn't want her to get hurt. Because he wants her. Because she was afraid to let herself. Because she smiles. Because she likes looking into his eyes. Because of it all. Channy. Rated M for reasons. Better story than summary
1. Until You're Mine

**Author's Note:**

**I'm not sure how good this is, but I got an idea and though I'd go for it. It may seem like it's mostly Chad in this part but the majority of the story will be from Sonny. Review? Thanks for reading! I do not own any of the SWAC characters, only the made up ones. **

_Until you're mine, I have to find_

_A way to fill this hole inside_

_I can't survive without you here_

_by my side_

_Until you're mine, not gonna be_

_Even close to complete_

_I won't rest until you're mine_

_Mine..._

_- Demi Lovato "Until You're Mine"_

He was used to seeing her with other guys.

But just because he was used to it, didn't mean that it didn't hurt every time he saw her with another guy. When Tawni had first told him about James and Sonny dating he had, well he hadn't been able to even fathom the rage he felt inside. Of course he had been overjoyed to hear that the James and Sonny relationship quickly crumbled, and had been even happier to agree to be her fake boyfriend. He had though that their "fake" date would lead to a real one, or at least a kiss but he had been wrong. She hadn't even kissed him, it had been totally fake. He had no idea how to react in that kind of situation and had just bolted with a stupid comment.

She thought that he was just being a jerk, as usual but the real reason he had ran was because he hadn't wanted her to see his true feelings. He had a hard time trusting people, and there was no way he was going to let someone like _her_ see his real feelings.

She was so…kind and nice. She was so kind to other people and practically never did anything bad. She was the nicest person he had ever met. Of course, she was also one of the most beautiful he had ever met. Her brown eyes always sparkled with happiness, and her gleaming smile was always completely genuine. He loved the way her silky chestnut hair rippled down her back in waves, and how it was always so glossy looking. All he wanted to do was hold her close and run his hands through her hair while he kissed her.

She was not afraid at all to totally be herself and didn't care what people thought of her. It was one of her best qualities, and was certainly his favorite trait. She didn't take crap from anybody, including him. He had thought he hated her, but he quickly realized that fake hate was just covering his love for her.

It didn't surprise him either when he noticed guys hanging around Sonny. It was kind of impossible not too, once they started coming they poured in. They were EVERYWHERE, her dressing room, and the cafeteria, the So Random! Set (not that he ever hung around there or anything), outside the building, and some even spilled onto the Mackenzie Falls set. It was impossible for him to ignore them, and the stabbing pain in his heart still hurt every time he saw a new guy.

Whenever he tried to talk to her, he was pushed out of the way. He began to miss their playful banter and witty flirting. He missed their lunchtime greetings and fro-yo visits. He even missed the minimal physical contact that they had together. The days passed, and now he barely saw her.

Then he head about Ben. Ben Britt was an older, college-bound star that had taken a break from his popular TV series and flourishing movie roles to attend Stanford. Everyone had heard for the Ben and his twin sister, Annabel. The two drop dead gorgeous twins had been starring left and right in the business since they were in elementary school. Everyone had been shocked when Ben had dropped out of his TV show and had rejected the role of popular Cesar Malone in Judd Apatow's new comedy. His sister, the dazzling beauty had opted not to go to college but to continue acting.

Ben was the object of most girls' affections, much to Chad's dismay. He had never really seen Ben hang around Sonny, but he got a text alert from Perez alerting the public of the new 'it' couple. He had wanted to tell Sonny how he really felt, but it was too late now. Suddenly Ben was everywhere on the set, always bring her flowers and candy, holding her for no reason, kissing her publicly, and taking her out all the time. Their picture was everywhere. It might have been possible for him to let go of Sonny, but every time she was with Ben in front of him she shot him a weird look. It was a mix of, 'look how happy I am!' look, 'aren't you jealous?' look, and weirdly enough the 'help me, I don't want to be with him' look. But he ignored her. It hurt too much.

He remembered the first day they had talked in three months. He was coming back from the shower to his dressing room late one night. He had only had a towel on, and was pretty proud of his body. He had a lot of timework out whilst ignoring Sonny. He had just finished reading for the season finale of Mackenize Falls and it had been so late, he had decided to just sleep in his dressing room. It had been a rough week for him. The producers had been pushing to film two more episodes before the finale, and he had to memorize two whole episodes plus the finale. He had stayed late almost every night this week, and it was taking his toll on him.

He was more than surprised to see Sonny, sitting on his desk giving him that charming yet sassy smirk of hers. He had only caught wayward glimpses of her the past few weeks, he had mostly been trying to not think about her and ignore her. He had gone out of his way to not see her. He skipped lunch hours and had his meals delivered to his dressing room. He hadn't gone to any premieres or celebrity appearances that she had RSVP'd too.

She looked a little different, but not much. Her hair was much longer now, and darker. Her bangs had grown into long, elegant side bangs and her brown eyes sparkled underneath long, doe-like lashes. She wore a slightly dressier outfit than Chad was used to seeing her in, and he idly wondered if it was for Ben. She wore black stiletto pumps that looked dangerously hard to walk in, and a flowing turquoise dress with flowing sleeves. The dress was so low that he could see the outline of her lacy red bra. He was surprised. He hadn't pegged Sonny for a lacy lingerie kind of girl. She wore a Tiffany heart necklace with the initials "BS" on the chain and a long, silver link chain. Her cheeks flushed at the sight of him, and he wondered if she was flustered by the fact he was one step away from being naked. Well good. He wished he could make her flustered.

She was perched at the end of Chad's white desk, her legs crossed daintily over one each other. She twisted the end of her long necklace with her polished red French manicure. "Well hey there!" She said cheerily. "I haven't seen you lately. Ignoring me?" She questioned playfully, but Chad thought there was a nervous edge to her tone. He didn't meet her quizzical gaze. He just stared at his feet and ran his hand through his wet hair. "Chad?" She questioned again.

"No." Chad said shortly after a few moments of silence. Sonny looked slightly hurt, as if he had hurt her feelings.

"Where than where have you been? I haven't seen you around the sets at all, or anywhere outside of the sets. I haven't seen you in the cafeteria either! Are you eating?" She persisted, sounding concerned. Chad still didn't meet her gaze as he grabbed a pile of clothes from his sofa. "CHAD!" She shouted when he still didn't answer her.

"I've been busy!" He defended himself. "I've been places, but you just haven't been where I've been." He said vaguely and Sonny gave him an odd look. "Are you aware that you have the initials of bullshit on your neck?" Chad smirked, and he realized he was a little ruder than he needed to be.

"Yeah….I know. But Ben likes it, and I really don't mind." Sonny admitted softly. Chad stared at her incredulously for a moment before responding.

"If you Ben told you to jump off a bridge, would you?" Chad asked snidely. Then it was Sonny's turn to stare at Chad. She stared at her feet now.

"No." She responded softly. She twisted a shiny lock of hair around her finger, and she looked like she was fighting back tears. "Why do you hate me?" She asked in a small voice. Chad gasped and stared at her. He walked over and touched her shoulder but she flinched away.

"I don't hate you!" Chad said passionately He felt sick at the thought of Sonny thinking that he hated her. "I really don't Sonny." He said quietly. Sonny shook her head.

"Yeah right." She smirked. She uncrossed her legs and jumped down. She was inches away from his face as if she was trying to intimidate her. "You've hated me since the day I came." She said evenly. Chad pursed his lips and shook his head at her.

" I DID not hate you. I am self-centered, egotistical jerk who thought that you were going to get in the way of my spotlight. But you were nice, and really sweet and I couldn't help but like you. You are my friend Sonny. I have been **busy**. " Chad emphasized. He grabbed Sonny's hands and encased them in his. "Okay?" There was so much more he wanted to say, three little words that were so impossible to say but it was hard enough to say that they were friends. He wanted her so much more than that, but Chad Dylan Cooper just didn't' admit his feelings like that.

Sonny nodded. "Okay, fine." She was quiet for a minute, and she stared into Chad's eyes with big, soulful puppy dog eyes. He was suddenly aware that he was still half naked. "But this has nothing to do with Ben, right?" She asked delicately. Chad sneered, but didn't look away from her gaze.

"No!" He scorned. "Of course not!" He wanted to move away, but he would not back down first. Apparently, neither would Sonny. They both stood there, staring at each other for minutes. Suddenly, they heard a deep voice calling Sonny's name.

"Sonny!" The voice rang out in the hallways. Sonny froze for a second and backed up a step when she recognized the voice. Unexpectedly, a tall lanky boy appeared in the doorway of Chad's dressing room. "Hey!" He said brightly. He surveyed the scene in front of him, and seemed a little disgruntled to see Chad shirtless and Sonny so close to him.

"Hey!" Sonny said happily as she rushed over to her boyfriend. She wrapped her arms around his waist and Ben chuckled.

"Wanna introduce us?" Ben asked, looking down at Sonny with adoring eyes. Sonny blushed and nodded.

"Ben, this Chad Dylan Cooper. Chad, this is Ben Britt. I'm surprised that you two have never met." Sonny said, although she didn't sound that shocked. Chad smiled fakely and shook hands with Ben.

"Nice to meet you brah." Ben said, a fake smile also plastered on his face. Chad nodded and cleared his throat.

"Yeah nice to meet you too. I guess we don't run in the same circles. "Chad said as nicely as he could manage. He glanced at Sonny, and he could tell that a plan was formulating in her head. Ben looked uncomfortable and like he wanted to go, but Sonny smiled evilly at Chad.

"So I'll see you at the gala?" Sonny asked Chad sweetly. Chad looked at her in confusion. Their production company was holding a big start-of-summer gala this weekend. All of the cast members of all of the shows were required to go, mainly because it was big publicity event. Chad hadn't planned on going by pretending his dog died or something. "And I can't wait to meet your date!" Sonny squealed happily. Chad groaned. Now he got it. Sonny was challenging him to admit that he was upset about her dating Ben, and didn't think he would have a date. _Ha, like that would ever happen _Chad thought with a smirk. He was going to enjoy this.

"Yes, of course!" Chad said enthusiastically. Sonny looked completely taken aback, like she had not expected Chad to say yes. Chad smirked and glanced at his custom-made watch. "Now if you two will excuse me, I have to get ready for my date with my girlfriend ." Chad said smugly, enjoying the shocked look on Sonny's face.

"Woah woah wait a second!" Sonny put her hands up. "If you have a girlfriend, then why doesn't the public know about it?" She asked curiously. She looked a little hurt, like she was upset that _she_ hadn't known about it.

"Unlike _some_ people, I like to keep my relationships private." Chad retorted snidely. Sonny stepped backwards, like she had been slapped.

"Since when does Chad Dylan Cooper stay private about anything?" Sonny asked skeptically. She turned around to Ben, and put her small hand on his bicep. "Come on babe." She murmured throatily. He nodded and put his hand up to Chad. As they walked out of his dressing room, Sonny turned her head around to give Chad a weird look that he couldn't decipher.

Then, Chad was all alone in his dressing room. He couldn't believe that he had agreed to come to the gala. It was hard enough for him to see Sonny with another guy when they were just by themselves, but when Sonny and Ben were in front of hundreds of people, being all couple-y and cute? Wow, that was going to suck. But he wasn't worried about finding another girl. Girls always swarmed to him.

"I mean, how could he not tell me! I thought we were friends!" Sonny ranted. She was so frustrated she felt like she was going to burst. She gazed out the window of the speeding car, at the flurry of people and lights that was LA. Ben sat next to her, one hand on the wheel of his cherry-red Porsche and another slung over Sonny's shoulders.

"Babe, just chill. He's not even worth it." Ben said. Sonny guessed he was trying to comfort her, but he just sounded bored and annoyed.

"I know." She said in a defeated tone. "It's just like, we were friends even though we fought all the time and then he just starts avoiding me. Like, completely ignoring me. It hurts, that's all." Sonny tried to explain. It hurt her just to think of him. What an ass.

"Do you like, have feelings for him or something?" Ben asked coldly. "Because you're kinda acting like a scorned girlfriend." He said, glancing over at Sonny.

"NO! I do not have feelings for him! I have feelings for you!" Sonny said, smiling at her boyfriend. She really did. Ben was cute and nice and funny. _And boring._ Sonny thought to herself, but she quickly brushed that thought away.

"Well than why do you care so much?" Ben questioned. Sonny shrugged.

"I- I'm not sure. He's my friend. I care about my friends." Sonny tried to defend herself, but she wasn't even sure why she did care. Chad had practically never been anything but an ass to her. Ben scowled and turned on to radio, and suddenly heavy rap blasted through the speakers. Sonny hated heavy rap. "Hey." Sonny touched Ben's shoulder. "You know I love you." She said, flashing him a huge smile. She felt Ben relax under her touch.

"I know." Ben smiled back at his girlfriend as he pulled into the restaurant they were eating at parking lot. He deftly maneuvered his prized car into a parking slot and got out of the car. He opened the door on the other side for Sonny, and grabbed her hand. A swarm of flashing cameras surrounded them, and Ben smiled broadly for the cameras, pulling Sonny close to him. Sonny smiled uncomfortable for the blinking lights. She hated being the public eye, but Ben seemed to love it.

As she stared listlessly into the intimidating eyes of the camera lenses, her mind wandered to Chad. She wondered what he was doing, or if he was with his girlfriend. She thought of his soft, caring blue eyes and his gorgeous locks of sandy colored mane. She wondered if he and his girlfriend were snuggling together, watching a movie and eating popcorn. Her heart ached. That's where she wanted to be right now, not in front of the paparazzi, wearing an uncomfortable dress and heels that killed.

Eventually, Ben ushered Sonny into the restaurant and onto a small, cozy patio. It wasn't private, but there were only three or four other high-profile couples were dining on the twinkly terrace. Sonny felt much more relaxed as she and Ben settled into the comfortable wicker chairs.

"So how was your day?" Sonny asked after taking a sip of cool, cucumber water. Ben shrugged his shoulders as he flipped through the dark green menu.

"It was fine." He said shortly. Sonny glanced up from her menu, surprised at his tone. She touched his hand gently with hers.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sonny asked, concerned about her boyfriend's behavior. He didn't answer, and Sonny fiddled with her hair nervously. "Ben?" She asked quietly.

"I'm fine. I just can't shake that Chad guy off me." Ben said as he reached for his water. Sonny relaxed.

"Honestly, he's not that bad when you get to know him. But he still isn't worth being angry over." Sonny explained. Ben nodded, and flashed Sonny his breathtaking white smile and she giggled. She loved when he smiled. She loved how his floppy, dark walnut locks were always tousled and the devilish glint in his olive-colored eyes. His skin was a naturally dark toffee color thanks to his slight Barbadian background. It was undeniable that he was absolutely gorgeous, but Sonny found him extra alluring because of his personality and background.

Ben Britt (born as Johthan Britt) was the product of a Dutch business mogul and Barbadian supermodel. His mother was the world-renowned supermodel Delene Ronaldino who was famous for her curly black hair and almost-clear blue eyes. Delene was also known around the world for her skimpy jewelry ads for countless high-profile jewelers. His father was Andries Britt, who not was not only a respected business man but the inventor of lights that go on and off when you clap. They met when Andries was buying the diamond company that Delene was currently working at and had fallen in love instantly when he saw the beautiful woman. She too, had fallen for him and the two dated for two years before getting married. They had two houses, one in Barbados and one in Holland. Delene quit modeling shortly after their marriage and had Ben and his twin sister, Annabel. Ben and Annabel had spent the first two years of their life running naked on the white beaches of Barbados or wearing furry, thick jackets skiing down the creamy slopes of Holland. Then, their father moved his company to America and they settled in California.

Annabel and Ben modeled in designer clothing ads with their mother when she got back into modeling, and the twins were discovered by a talent agent who wanted to put them on Barney. They grew up in spotlight, and Annabel got the lead role on a Disney show, while Ben got no role requests. His agent thought if they made Ben more American, he would get more roles so he changed his name from Barbadian name Johthan to Ben. Annabel had been named after their father's grandmother and had tan skin and long, blond hair while Ben had the Barbados name and dark complexion and look. Ben got a huge role on a different Disney show, and then his career had sky-rocketed since.

Sonny had loved Ben's interesting life, and had drunken in every incredible detail of his life. "So were parents disappointed that you chose to college?" Sonny asked as she grabbed some warm bread from the wire bread basket arranged neatly on their table.

"Nah." Ben shook his head. "My parents could care less about the industry. They knew it was something Anna and I both wanted, so they let us do it. My dad probably even prefers me getting a good education." Ben explained, twirling the silver hook at the top of his left ear. Sonny loved his earrings, he had silver hoop in his left cartilage and a tiny turquoise ball in his left ear. She thought it was devilishly sexy and it completely turned her on.

"So did they care about the earrings?" Sonny asked with a giggle. The waitress than appeared, and they ordered their dinner. The waitress asked for both their autographs and a picture, and the couple happily obliged. Sonny beamed at the small digital camera, and happily scrawled a signature for the girl. She didn't mind meeting fans or taking pictures with them, it was paparazzi that she hated.

Once they sat back down, Ben grabbed Sonny's hand and clasped it in his. "No, they didn't care about my earrings." He answered her previous question. "Or my tattoo." Ben whispered, his eyes glinting.

"You have a tattoo?" Sonny exclaimed in surprise. "Let me see!' I can't believe that America's Good Guy Ben Britt has a tattoo!" Sonny gushed. Ben laughed and ran his hand through his messy hair.

"Uh, I have two ear piercings. Am I still viewed as a good guy?" Ben asked playfully.

"Of course you still are! Just because you're pierced doesn't mean you're bad, although it does kind of tarnish the perfect image. I'm just surprised you have a tattoo. Can I see it?" Sonny asked curiously. She herself had always toiled with the idea of getting a sun on her waist, or maybe her foot or on the nape of her neck.

Ben just smiled at her. "Maybe when we're in private. No one really knows about it yet, and I don't want everybody to see it." He said, leaning closer. Sonny giggled and nodded as she leaned closer to him as well.

"Well will you at least kiss me now?" Sonny asked, a flirty edge to her voice. He laughed and kissed her softly on the cheek. The kiss was nice, it started off soft and gentle but got more intense and engaging as it went on. Sonny was enjoying the taste of Ben's strawberry toothpaste when an image of Chad suddenly popped in her heard. What was that doing there? She tried to push the image of the golden-locked, beautiful boy from her mind but it wouldn't budge. She tried to throw herself into the kiss more, but there wasn't much more she could do without jumping over the table and sitting in his lap. Finally, Ben broke away and took a deep breath.

"Save some for later!" Ben said jokingly, but Sonny felt extremely disgruntled. Why was Chad popping into her brain when she was making out with her boyfriend. How weird.

The next morning, Chad swaggered confidently into the studio. He wasn't the least bit worried about finding a data for the gala, girls swarmed to him like was covered in honey and they were hungry bees. He just had to choose one that was cute enough to make Sonny jealous. Easy.

But just in case, he had taken extra measures to look good this morning. He had put just a tad of gel in his hair so it would be even more perfect than usual, and has used Axe spray which he knew girls loved. He wore casual clothes, dark jeans and a designer plaid shirt.

He sauntered into the studio cafeteria to grab some coffee and muffin, and wasn't surprised when he saw a cute girl giggling at him by the breakfast table. _This is going to be easier than I thought. _ Chad thought smugly as he approached the girl. The girl giggled again and tucked a lock of hair behind her small ear.

Chad checked out the girl before approaching. The last thing he needed was to be stuck with some ugly girl with no personality when he was trying to make Sonny jealous. Wait- no he didn't care about Sonny. He shook his head and continued to look at the girl.

She was mid height, shorter than him but not midget height. She had strawberry blonde hair that fell right under her buxom breasts that was straight, thick, and luscious. She had creamy pale skin, and freckles dotted her cute ski-slope nose. Her eyes were green, but they didn't sparkle the same way Sonny's did. He mentally kicked himself for thinking about her again, and once more focused his attention on this girl. She wore tight white jeans that hugged her thin legs and a flowing blue shirt with green designs on it that was cut low and showed her ample cleavage.

She was definitely cute enough for Chad, at least for one event. He walked over to her, a huge grin on his face. "Hey." She greeted him first, biting her plump pink lip with her perfectly white teeth. He leaned against the food table and flashed her his famous grin.

"Well hey there." Chad said smoothly, running his hand through his golden mane. "I'm Chad Dylan Cooper." He grinned at her again, and she blushed.

"Well hello Chad Dylan Cooper. I'm Penny Holloway." Penny introduced herself. Chad startled when he recognized Penny's last name. Ellis Holloway was the legendary music producer and head of Double Below Records which had been the hottest company in Hollywood for the past ten years and currently. The record company boasted hundreds of legendary stars and a flawless track record for producing renowned artists.

"So why is a cute girl with an even cuter name hanging around Condor Studios for?" Chad asked, twirling a pink drinking straw in his hand.

"Do you use that line on everyone?" Penny asked, but the grin on her face told Chad she was purely joking.

"Nah, just the ones with cute names." Chad teased back. Penny tossed her long, red locks.

"For your information, I was named not only for my red hair but my parents named all of us after famous songs." Penny explained.

"All of us?" Chad asked curiously, he hadn't realized that Ellis had any children, let alone more than one.

"Yeah, my sisters are Caroline, Julia, Lola, and Roxanne. My parents were blessed with five beautiful girls." Penny explained. She looked at Chad through her sea foam-green eyes.

"I'll say." Chad remarked boldly. Chad had no issue getting girls because he simply had no boundaries.

"Actually, Roxy is the whole reason I'm here. She's filling in as an extra on one of the shows. Mr. Condor is one of daddy's best friends and he needed a favor. Julia, Lola, and I came with her for moral support – she gets so nervous. " Penny explained. Chad nodded, impressed.

"So don't you go to school?" Chad questioned curiously.

"Of course I do, I got to Beverly Prep. But we're done with everything but finals so we get a week off to study, then finals, and then summer!" Penny exclaimed. Suddenly, Chad heard a trio of girl's voices calling Penny's name.

Three girls appeared in the cafeteria, obviously Julia, Lola, and Roxy. Penny smiled. "Chad, meet my sisters. Julia, Lola, Roxy- meet Chad." Penny introduced. Chad smiled at the girls. They were all gorgeous, but completely different from each other except for their green eyes and plump lips. Julia was the tallest, and had the largest chest. She wore short jean skirt and lacy black tights on her pale legs that were tucked into black leather boots. She wore a gray sweatshirt-looking thing. She also had long, silky dark locks that swept by her waist. Lola was super skinny and had the grunge thing going on, and she wore miniscule shorts with a long flannel shirt and white tank top. Black converse with messages drawn them bedecked her feet, and starkly contrasted with her white blond, wavy hair that also hung down past her ribs. Chad could see a white daisy tattoo on her pale, skinny hip. Roxy was probably the most normal looking one, she had the same red-blond hair as Penny and it was cut into a voluminous bob that swept her collarbones. She wore gold bell-shaped earrings and a lacy white long sleeved shirt with orange shorts and gold gladiator sandals.

"Penny, we have to leave to meet Carom and mom." Julia said, slightly brusque but mostly just informative. Penny nodded, and smiled a remorseful smile at Chad and waved goodbye as she started walking away. Chad made an executive decision in his mind and grabbed her elbow.

"Hey I realize that I just met you, but do you maybe want to go out dinner tonight?" Chad asked, slightly hesitantly. Sure, he WAS _Chad Dylan Cooper _ but he had just met her and Penny Holloway could get any guy she wanted just by saying her name. Penny's lips curled into a half-smile and she quickly looked at her sisters for silent advice. Each sister gave Penny a half-nod and Penny turned back to Chad.

"Sure! Here's my address and phone number." Penny quickly grabbed a pen from her purse and scribbled on Chad's hand.

"I'll pick you up at 7:30." Chad said. Penny nodded and then took off, giggling to her sisters. Chad smirked to himself. He always got his way.

Chad checked his iphone. 7:40. Perfectly late, and hadn't even tried. Of course, Chad was always perfect. Chad smoothed his dark red shirt and dark jeans before running a hand through his golden halo of hair. He felt totally confident, and he couldn't wait to take Penny out. He walked up the marble and granite steps and rang the doorbell. It chimed cheerily, and just lifted Sonny's spirits. And he hadn't even thought of Sonny once. _Shit! No!_ He thought, he had been so close to forgetting about her.

His thoughts were interrupted by the huge wooden door opening to reveal a middle-aged woman whose eyes crinkled when she smiled. She had long, auburn hair that was braided neatly in one braid. "Hello, you must be Chad." The woman said in an accent that Chad couldn't quite place. It sounded like a Dutch Antilles accent mixed with a Boston accent. How odd. "I'm Yvette, the girl's nanny." She held out her hand and Chad shook it heartily.

Chad stepped into the massive house, and gazed around. The house was artfully decorated to the dime, and hundreds of photos and pieces of artwork covered the walls, armoires, and tables. "Nice to meet you." Chad said kindly. He may be really conceited but he always nice to adults. Yvette nodded and opened her mouth as if to say something but Penny came down the stairs, looking cute in a silver dress.

"Hey." Chad said smoothly. They chatted with Yvette for awhile, and shared some embarrassing family stories that made Penny blush. After guaranteeing that Penny would be home before 11:30, Chad led Penny out to his beamer. He opened the door for her like a gentleman and then went around and climbed in the buttery-smooth leather seat himself.

"Chad, thank you for being so charming to Yvette. She's like a mother to me, and it really meant something to me that you were so nice to her." Penny said earnestly, looking at Chad with shining eyes.

"Why wouldn't I have been charming?" Chad asked curiously. Penny shifted in her seat, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Well…you don't exactly have the best rep. " Penny said awkwardly. "But I was just pleasantly surprised that's all! Brains, beauty, and benevolent –who knew?" Penny said jokingly. Chad just smiled. He hadn't realized Penny knew of his "rep". He would have to be extra nice and sweet to her now –ugh.

"No worries." Chad said easily. They chatted until they got to the restaurant, a small restaurant that private enough that they would be able to talk and public enough that someone would see them. They were led to their table, cozy in the corner and started talking instantaneously.

"So tell me about yourself." Chad asked, trying to be a nice as possible. It was killing him.

"Well what do you want to know?" Penny asked, a little taken aback that Chad Dylan Cooper wanted to know about her.

"Everything. Family, school, pets, ex-boyfriends.." Chad said with a shrug. It would actually benefit him to know as much as possible about Penny, then it would seem more realistic to Sonny that Penny was his girlfriend.

"Well, you already know about my dad. I love my dad to death, but he's always busy so I rarely get to see him. And you probably know that my mom died when I was two. I'm not sad anymore, I was too young to remember, and I have a strong support system – Yvette and my sisters. All my sisters are super close, but we're really different from each other. I go to Beverly Prep, and I'm sixteen but I turn seventeen in July. I'm going to be a junior next year. I have two black-and-white border collies named Belle and Beast and a rabbit named Muffins." Penny said. Chad started to zone out after the bunny part. Geez, he hadn't asked for her life story! But he snapped back in when she mentioned ex-boyfriends.

"Yeah, well this is embarrassing but I dated Ben Britt for three years." Penny said, her face turning bright crimson. Chad gasped and opened his eyes wide.

"It's okay, tell me all about it." Chad said, a fake smile on his face and forced sweetness in his voice. Penny sighed, and fingered her hair, just like Sonny always did.


	2. Tied Together with a Smile

**Author's Note:**

**Thanks for your reviews! Sorry it's been so long since I updated and this is so short. School / SSATs have been kicking my ass! Please keep reading and reviewing! **

_hold on, baby you're losing it_

_the waters high, your jumping into it_

_and letting go and no one knows_

_that you cry, but you don't tell anyone_

_that you might not be the golden one_

_and your tied together with a smile_

_but your coming undone_

_- tied together with a smile by Taylor Swift_

Penny looked nervous talking about her ex-beau, but Chad was intrigued. Penny had dated Ben? He was suddenly interested in what she had to say. Not only would he learn more about that ass, but it would drive Sonny crazy.

"Well I met him in 8th grade when he came to one of my dad's parties. I was only thirteen and he completely charmed me. I was totally naïve, but I fell fast. He insisted we keep our relationship private, and we only went out in random spots no one would talk about, to the movies, or at our houses. I thought it was totally normal for a big celeb like Ben to want to keep his relationship out of the public eye – but I now realize that he was ashamed to be with a normal girl and didn't want to look like a sleaze by dating a girl four years younger than him!" Penny fumed.

Chad gasped. That meant that Ben was almost twenty one, and so he was almost five years older than Sonny! Penny took Chad's gasp as a cue to keep talking about how crappy a boyfriend Ben was. "He was gone all the time, and forbade me to hang out with other guys and I had to call him every night. I felt suffocated but thought I was in love and thought that the price of love was sometimes not having fun. Ben seemed so nice, but he really wasn't. When he _was_ around, he was always pushing me to farther than I was ready, and I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't say no. He was older, and I did what I had to do because I thought I needed him." Chad was shocked. Penny pretty much had just implied that she and Ben had sex. His mind instantly jumped to Sonny, and he started to worry about her.

"Wow, could he get any sleazier?" Chad asked. He couldn't stop thinking about Sonny, but he forced himself to focus on Penny. Penny shook her head.

"I have no idea. I'm not sure that he's a horrible guy, but he's lost. Or he was. Maybe he's changed? I don't know. We began to pull away in the start of 10th grade, I started to grow up and mature and realize it wasn't a healthy relationship but as much as I hated to admit, I was still in love with them. We had a bit more healthy relationship after I confronted him, but I dug up some nasty secrets about his pat and was appalled he wasn't honest with me. When I got asked to prom by a junior, I decided to grow up and break up with him." Penny explained. She took a swig of the ice water on the table and smiled bashfully at Chad. "Sorry I didn't mean to unload on you." She apologized.

Chad shrugged and waved his hand in the air. "No worries, I don't mind." He said easily. He was actually pleased he had chosen such a good girl to make Sonny jealous, not only had he uprooted serious dirt on Ben, but Penny was actually pretty cool. Penny grinned at Chad, and Chad grinned back.

"You know, I'm very pleasantly surprised by you CDC." Penny said with a smirk.

"Most people are." Chad said smoothly, twisting the fork between his fingers while giving Penny one of his famous stares with the full force of his bright, sapphire eyes.

Sonny stood on the tiny vanity seat of her dressing room she shared with Tawni, fiddling with her brown locks. The cast of So Random! had stayed later to practice a sketch, and then were going to gala at Cherry, the hip new club that Condor Studios had rented. Sonny sighed, defeated.

"I have no idea what to do with myself tonight. I wanna look good, but have no ideas." Sonny complained. Despite the fact that they had only gotten back to their dressing room ten minutes ago, Tawni was almost fully groomed.

"If you let me finish my makeup I'll help you." Tawni said as she layered her lashes with mascara. Sonny gasped, did Tawny Hart really just offer to help her? Tawni saw Sonny's open mouth and smirked.

"Uh, thanks but I don't know Tawni…" Sonny said, trailing off. She and Tawni didn't exactly have the same style.

"Well do you want my help or not?" Tawni demanded. Sonny glanced at Tawni. She did look pretty tonight. She wore a dark green wrinkled gauze dress with sweetheart neckline and gathered elastic banding at top hem with strappy black gladiator heels. She had swept her blond hair back in some kind of twist and she wore a thin black headband in her hair and looked gorgeous.

"Yes!" Sonny said enthusiastically. Tawni walked over to Sonny with her makeup bag and spun Sonny around so she was facing Tawni' face and Sonny felt a little close for comfort but said nothing as Tawni worked with mascara, lip gloss, and blush on Sonny's face. When she was done, she didn't let Sonny look in the mirror, and walked around to fiddle with Sonny's hair.

"What are you wearing?" Tawni questioned.

"Well I was thinking that black dress and those red heels." Sonny pointed to the black dress hanging in her closet, the shoes arranged neatly under.

"Uhhm no. Way too boring. You have that gorgeous silver dress hanging right there, and you should wear my shoes, I have the same pair in a size smaller. I always buy two sizes of everything." Tawni urged. Sonny glanced at the silver dress hanging in her closet. It was a smug fit, it had been sent over as a gift from Mr. Condor's assistant as a thank you for babysitting his daughter. It was a tight, silver Herve Leger number, and Sonny felt so self-conscious in it, it was so short and revealing.

"I really don't know Tawni. It's not something I'd usually wear. And since when do you share shoes!?" Sonny exclaimed. Tawni rolled her eyes as she reached for her flat iron,

"You need a fresh wardrobe change, if only for tonight. And sharing my shoes is a one time thing, so I'd take advantage of it." Tawni said with a laugh. Sonny agreed half-heartedly and sat patiently while Tawni finished her hair. When Tawni spun Sonny around to look at herself in the mirror, Sonny gasped.

Her lips were painted a glossy golden-pink and her cheeks were brushed with rosy pink. Her eyelashes were thickly coated with black mascara that made her brown eyes look doe-like. Silver liner sparkled on the bottom lid of her eye and illuminated her eyes even more. Her hair was completely straight for once, and it reached down past her chest. Tawni helped Sonny pour herself into the dress and strap on the ridiculous heels. Sonny thanked Tawni profusely and slipped on a pair of thin, jeweled black hoops into her first holes, and small pearls in her second holes.

"I don't know… I don't feel like myself." Sonny admitted as she looked at herself in the mirror.

"Oh stop saying that! You look hot!" Tawni exclaimed as she re-glossed her lips for the hundredth time. "But not as hot as me, of course!" She added. Sonny just laughed, as she wobbled out of the room to meet their cast and Ben at the comissionary.

Everyone's mouths dropped open as Sonny and Tawni walked into the room. Sonny thought everyone looked great, but Ben looked especially gorgeous tonight. Nico wore a dark purple dress shirt with a grey vest over it with a gray fedora and black pants. Grady wore a gray polo with white pants and light blue and yellow Nike ids. Zora was dressed in a typical Zora outfit, but she looked great. Ben looked gorgeous, as usual in black leather pants, a baggy white shirt, and a black vest.

"Hey babe." Ben said huskily as he hugged her waist tightly. "You look unbelievable tonight." He whispered into her ear. She giggled at the feel of his warm breath on her ear and kissed him gently on the cheek.

"Ugh okay let's limit the PDA." Grady groaned. He and Nico exchanged looks, and Sonny pulled away, embarrassed. She entwined her fingers with Bens' as they walked out to the limo waiting for them.

The group chatted as the limo rolled out onto the streets of Hollywood, into the city of bright lights and frenzied fever. The gala was being held at the ultra-exclusive new club Lunar, which was apparently so elite that there wasn't even sign or address for it. If you were high enough in the hierarchy – you knew where it was.

The limo pulled up in front of a nondescript black building, and despite the fact that it was not even close to being a red-carpet event, paparazzi were waiting and ready for them with their massive lens.

The cast plus Ben piled out of the limo and started to pose immediately. Sonny posed with Ben at first, their arms around each other and huge grins plastered on their face. But then she started posing with her cast, which is what she was supposed to be doing, and she wanted too.

She made goofy poses with Nico and Grady, a huge cheesy smile on her face. She and Tawni linked arms and pouted their lips, showing off their matching shoes. Eventually, a new car pulled up that bore other stars and the cast was rushed inside.

"Wow, this is beautiful!" Sonny gasped. The executives at Condor studios had rented out Lunar privately for tonight, and had decorated it especially for the gala. Huge posters of the various shows hung on the walls, music was pumping through the room, and food was spread out on huge tables.

"It's pretty nice." Ben agreed. "I'm going to go get us some drinks babe." He said, hugging Sonny tightly and kissing her on the cheek. Sonny offered a weak smile at him and he ran off to get drinks.

Sonny twirled around on her ridiculously high heels, enjoying the feel of the hot lights on her skin and her hair lightly brushing the skin on her back. She was interrupted of her moment of bliss by a familiar voice.

"Sonny!" Chad's voice rang out. Sonny whirled around to see Chad with a pretty girl who had reddish hair. "This is my girlfriend, Penny." He said smugly. He looked Sonny up and down, and Sonny suddenly felt very self conscious. Sonny's heart deflated. She had been sure that Chad was making Penny up. She also felt something else – was that…jealousy? No. She was with Ben. She didn't care about Chad.

"Nice to meet you." Sonny said feebly. Penny smiled and held out her hand to shake, but Sonny didn't take it. Penny cast a confused glance at Chad, but Chad just shrugged.

Sonny twisted her fingers behind her back uncomfortably. Luckily (or so she thought), Ben appeared holding two crystal champagne flutes full of water.

He gasped audibly when he saw Chad and Penny. "Penny!?" Ben exclaimed. Penny's green eyes widened. "Wha-wha-what are you doing here?" Ben stuttered. Sonny looked from Ben to Penny to Chad. What was going on?

"Chad is my boyfriend." Penny said nervously. Ben's eyes widened, and he looked like her couldn't breathe for a second.

"Oh." Ben whispered inaudibly. Sonny, still confused, was getting annoyed. She had no idea what was happening, she had never seen Ben act like this.

No one spoke for a moment, and stale awkwardness hung in the air. "Okay, so what's going on?" Sonny demanded, putting her hands on her hips. Penny looked at Chad, as if he should explain but he said nothing and just looked at his shiny black shoes.

"Well, Ben and I kind of dated…for three years." Penny finally explained. Sonny gasped. What!? Chad was dating Ben's longtime ex-girlfriend? Ben suddenly looked very angry.

"Penny can we talk?" Ben asked irritably. Penny nodded and Ben led her off to the side. Once they were out of hearing range, Sonny punched Chad in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" Chad screeched, rubbing his arm up and down. He glared at Sonny, but she didn't even notice.

"You're such an ass! You're dating my boyfriend's ex on purpose!" Sonny shouted. Suddenly, they both heard the array of clicking noises. Chad quickly realized that the photographers were taking pictures of their fight when the whole point of the gala was to see all of the shows merging together.

Chad ushered Sonny outside, his hand on her elbow. As soon as they were outside, Sonny yanked her arm away. "Not cool Chad!"

"People were staring." Chad shrugged. "That's the last thing we need right now.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonny retorted hotly.

"It means that your boyfriend sucks!" Chad yelled. "Look Sonny," His voice softened. "Penny told me all about Ben. Not only did he constantly ignore her, cheat on her, and hide it all from her, but he practically raped her! He hasn't done anything to you, right?" Chad asked furiously.

"No!" Sonny exclaimed. "Chad just shut up, what do you know? You are SUCH an asshole! You're just dating Penny because she's Ben's ex because you know it would piss me off!" Sonny suddenly noticed that it was raining. Really hard. In Hollywood. The world was coming to an end.

"No that's not true!" Chad yelled back. "I didn't even know that at first. But Sonny, he's not being honest with you. Who knows what he hasn't told you? He's a first class asshole, not me!"

"Look Chad. I can handle myself. You aren't my dad, your not my brother, and your not my boyfriend! So why do you care?" Sonny screamed. Chad just stared at her.

"You know why." Chad said huskily. He leaned forward and grabbed Sonny around her waist. Sonny stared at him, his blue eyes shined with honesty. But she couldn't let herself believe him. She wouldn't. Even if she loved him.

"Sorry Chad. I have to get back to my boyfriend." Sonny said, walking away from Chad on her black heels, leaving him in the rain. Chad felt like her heels were stabbing them in the heart. He felt vulnerable, for the first time. All because of her.


	3. Coming to Terms

**Author's Note: Told you I'd update! Not that those freaking SSATS are over, I will try and update as much as possible. Please review, I may not continue the story unless I have more feedback. I realize it's moving a little slow, but a little smutty Channy is coming soon! I promise!**

_I'm coming to terms_

_I'm starting to learn_

_This ain't all it's cracked up to be_

_'Cause I'm using you, you're using me_

_It's never as easy as we believe_

_Is this what you need?_

_Am I what you need?_

_- coming to term by Carolina liar _

As Sonny marched away from Chad, she felt her heart constrict with every footstep. She couldn't identify quite what she was feeling. She had never felt anything like this before. She felt like her heart was pulling her toward Chad, but she knew that she was with Ben. Where was Ben anyway? She wondered as she wandered back into the party.

She painted a fake smile on her face as she stepped back into the glitter and lights. The last thing she needed was for Marshall to get angry at her for ruining his perfect gala. She felt someone grab her arm again, and for a minute she wished it was Chad. But than she saw the polished French-manicured nails and was suddenly face to face with Tawni.

"What just happened?" Tawni demanded. Geez, for a girl was a bubbly blonde and loved fairytales and bubblegum, she could be remarkably scary sometimes.

"Nothing." Sonny said, squirming away from Tawni's death grip uncomfortably. Tawni gave her a look only a girl can, and Sonny pulled Tawni into a private booth of the club. "I don't know Tawni. Chad just told me that Ben has been lying to me, but it doesn't make much sense. I have no idea where Ben is, and I'm so frustrated with him!" Sonny said, her hand squeezed tightly into a fist. Tawni tossed her hair and rolled her eyes.

"Well duh, I'm not surprised you guys are having problems. He was constantly smothering you, and you didn't even realize it." Tawni said knowledgably. Sonny stared at her, completely flummoxed.

"What are you talking about?" Sonny asked curiously.

"It's not hard to see that it was a faulty relationship. It was probably your first real relationship, and you kept convincing yourself that all of his behavior was normal. He was constantly around, and he didn't even give you a chance to step back and re-evaluate. He smothered you. Simple as that. And it's pretty obvious that your in love with Chad." Tawni said, like it was no big deal.

"What are you talking about! I hate Chad!" Sonny protested. Tawni just laughed, and tossed her hair again.

"Sometimes the one you hate the most is the one you love the most." Tawni said more seriously. "Sonny, it's obvious for everyone else to see. You need to see it now." Tawni urged. Someone called her name, and Tawni gave Sonny a empathetic glance before running off.

Sonny breathed deeply. She was beginning to panic. She was about to go to the bathroom to splash some cool water on her face when she felt yet another arm grab her. However, this time it was Ben.

"Can we talk…privately?" Ben asked quietly. Sonny nodded, and slid out of the booth. She pulled Ben into a small room that was presumably an office because the walls are a soft white, a glossy wooden desk sat in the middle of the room, a huge white Mac sat atop of the desk, and a row of filing boxes were pushed up against a wall.

"Soo...." Sonny said awkwardly. She twirled with a long strand of her hair, and looked up at her boyfriend.

"So I guess I have some explaining to do." Ben said finally. Sonny nodded mutely, and waited for an explanation. Ben bit his lip and ran his hand through his thick hair.

"Well?" Sonny demanded. She was exhausted, and she felt like she had been running around all night. She had no patience for this.

"Look babe, I'm sorry. I was a bad boyfriend to Penny and I didn't want my past relationship to ruin ours. Just because I was a horrible boyfriend then doesn't mean I can't be a good one now. Plus… I never really lied to you. I just didn't tell you about her." Ben tried to explain.

"Uh yeah, that would be lying. " Sonny said matter-of-factly. Ben shook his thick mane of dark hair, his expression paned.

"I guess it was lying, but I swear it was because I didn't want it to affect us. I really like you Sonny, maybe even love. I don't see how this is such a big deal." Ben said, staring into Sonny's eyes with his intense green eyes. Sonny averted her gaze, and suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"It's a big deal to me." Sonny said quietly.

"Why?" Ben pressed.

"I'm not sure. After my dad cheated on my mom, I guess I really strongly believe in honest relationships. I'm not sure this is working Ben. We've been having problems long before this incident." Sonny said, twirling a strand of silky hair between her fingers.

"What problems? I didn't even realize we were." Ben asked. Sonny could tell by his facial expression that he was being sincere about being confused which just made her feel even worse.

"Well for one, we're really different people." Sonny said, her voice heavy with emotion.

"So? Opposites attract." Ben stated. He crossed his arms, and stared at Sonny. He looked angry, and almost scary.

"Not always!" Sonny said louder, her voice squeaking. "You love being out in public 24/7. I feel so much more comfortable just hanging out in private. You love being photographed, and most of the time I hate it."

"Sonny I told you, it's because I was way too private with Penny and it ruined us. I wanted us to be public so we could survive." Ben pushed.

"Well not all relationships are the same! They need different things to grow. And our relationship is stunted." Sonny tried to explain, but Ben tried to interrupt. Sonny wouldn't let him though, and she held out her palm facing him.

"No! Ben just listen to me! I liked you, I really did but this is all too much. We are much too different. It's not just that you love being in public, it's more than that. I hate it when you call me babe- I have a name! You're always around, and I feel like I can't breathe. I need a little space. Our relationship is so frenzied, but I need one that's calm and chill." Sonny did her best to say it as nicely as possible, but she still felt terrible saying those words.

Ben narrowed his eyes, and Sonny thought he looked scary again. "I know the real reason for this. It's all because of Chad." He snarled. Sonny was about to defend Chad, but speak of the devil, he came through the door.

"Is everything okay in here? I heard yelling." Chad looked suspiciously at Ben, who glared back at Chad. Sonny felt her heart constrict at this situation.

"It's fine Chad." Sonny said coolly. She ignored the blonde for a moment and focused on Chad. "Ben, that's not it. Ugh I don't know, it's so complicated." She stared at her exposed toes for a moment before sighing deeply. "Look, I do like you. If you **promise** not to lie to me again, than we can forget this ever happened." Sonny said. Chad opened his mouth to interrupt but Ben interrupted him.

"Of course!" Ben said eagerly.

"Not so fast." Sonny warned. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?" Sonny asked. If Ben said no, she wasn't sure what she would do. She needed to trust her boyfriend, and she was sure he had some other secret. Ben looked from Sonny to Chad, who gave him a threatening stare, and back to Sonny.

"No." Ben said finally, not meeting Sonny's eyes. " I have nothing else to hide." Sonny felt her heart drop. How could he lie to her face like that?

"Sonny!" Chad protested.

"Shut up Chad." Ben said harshly. He grabbed Sonny forcefully and pressed his lips to hers. Sonny was about to push him away, but she needed to test something. She opened her lips to his, and threw her arms around his neck. She pressed herself against him, willing herself to feel something. She waited for the tingles in her stomach, or the fireworks in her heart that she had read about in all of the books but never experienced. Nothing. She had been kidding herself the whole time. She broke away and gasped through her tears. She ran out of the room, and was bombarded by the flurry of flashing lights and people.

"I have to go after her." Ben said, as he started to run out of the room. Chad grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Don't even think about it." Chad said harshly. He was a little taller than Ben, and he looked down on him with disgusted eyes. He ran out of the room to follow Sonny.

Sonny stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard. She felt like she was choking. Music blared in her ears, and she ran outside to the same spot she had been with Chad earlier. The rain pelted her skin like tiny knives, but she didn't even care.

Chad was quickly behind her. She felt his soft breath on her neck, and his manly yet delicious aroma surrounded her. "Sonny." He said quietly. He touched her shoulder, and she shivered at his touch.

"I hate you! You broke up my boyfriend and I! Everything was fine until you came and ruined it!" Sonny shouted. She was soaked to the bone now, water poured down her face, mixing with her tears.

"Sonny." He said quietly again. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize…anyways. I'm sorry. I just wanted you to know the truth about him."

"Shut up Chad! Why do you care so much again?" Sonny spun around, furious. She was sick of all of this.

"Do you seriously not get it Sonny?" Chad yelled. "What the fuck Sonny!"

"No! I don't! You are such a conceited jerk who only cares about his looks and his career. Are you even human? Because I wasn't aware robots could care!" She yelled back.

.Chad stared into her eyes, trying to get up the nerve to say it. Chad Dylan Cooper had never said this before. This was new. But then again, he had never felt like this before. "I like you okay? You are the first person who has ever made me care about anything. You make me feel like nothing I've ever felt before. I've changed since I met you Sonny. I want to be better for you." He said, taking a deep breath. Chad had never openly admitted his feelings like that before, and Sonny must have realized that because she looked like a fish with her mouth wide open and eyes bugging out. A cute fish though.

"I still hate you." Sonny said, a small smile appearing on perfectly plump pink lips. The rain blurred both of their visions, but they saw each other clearly.

"Yeah yeah. I hate you too." Chad said with a small laugh. He grabbed Sonny gently, not at all like the forceful way Ben had. He gently cupped her cheek in his hand and pressed his lips to hers. He had been waiting to do that forever. Sonny kissed him back, sucking on his lip, She locked her arms around him and he pressed himself closer to her gently. He gently pressed her against the brick wall, and they both melted into each other. The rain bombarded them, but they didn't even notice. They were too engrossed with each other to even care.

They broke away, both gasping for air. Sonny stared at Chad's perfect face, and gasped again when she felt the tingling in he stomach and the fireworks exploding over and over again in her mouth. Chad smiled at her, appreciating her gorgeous face.

"I'm sorry Chad. This can't happen." Sonny said sadly. She felt like screaming. She didn't want to say those words, but she couldn't help it. She saw Chad's wounded expression, and felt even worse.

"Wait…you don't feel the same?" Chad whispered. Sonny swallowed. She had to choke the lie out before she chickened out.

"No. I'm sorry." She spit out. She felt like she was going to throw up. She hated lying. And the worst part was, she was pretty sure she loved Chad. But whatever. She could lie to herself. Except she couldn't. She was so confused, and wanted to die. She ran down the alley, slipping on the concrete on her spindly heels. She didn't even say goodbye.

Chad felt like he was choking on air. He had just openly admitted that he liked Sonny, and had put himself on the line. And she had rejected him. He wanted to tell himself that Sonny Munroe's opinion didn't matter, but he was sick of lying to himself. It did matter. It mattered more than he wanted to admit.


	4. Swans

**Author's Note:**

**Sorry this is going so slow, I'm trying to really develop a plot to make this story good. I know I keep promising some smut, but again I'm trying to make it realistic.**

'Cause I'm fake at the seams,

I'm lost in my dreams, and

And I want you to know,

that I can't let you go.

- "Swans" by Unkle Bob

Sonny couldn't quite decipher what had woken her up so early. Her cute little cow alarm clock said it was six thirty-three, and Sonny never woke up earlier than eight unless she really had too. At first, she blamed it on the sun's bright rays that had shined on her bed but considering it was still pouring outside she quickly discarded that theory. Than, she blamed it on her massive headache, and as she swallowed two massive Advils, she quickly realized that her phone had woken her up. She grabbed her mooing phone to see thirty two texts in her inbox.

There were ten from Ben, two from Grady, three from Nico, sixteen from Tawni, and one from Chad. Sonny quickly scrolled down to Chad's text, a part of her praying it was good and another wishing it was bad.

You're kind of a bad liar, you know that?

Short, sweet, yet he hit a nerve.

Sonny groaned inwardly. She loved that Chad knew her so well, but she couldn't let herself get close to him. She couldn't let herself get hurt. She was smarter than that. Plus, she and Ben technically hadn't broken up. Ugh, that was another problem entirely. She ignored the rest of the texts, and leaned back into her pillow.

She had no idea how she felt about Chad. Well, that was a lie, of course she knew how she felt about him. She had known since the minute she had seen him. Sure he was cocky and arrogant, and was known not only as a teen heartthrob but also a jerk but he was so much more than that. He had helped Sonny out numerous times, and he had shown Sonny his sweet and helpful side. She wished that he could show that side all the time, but she knew that it simply wasn't his personality and she wasn't looking to change him. She didn't want to change him .She sort of like his cockiness and the fact that he had layers and wasn't so transparent.

But at the same time she didn't trust him. Not one bit. She obviously hadn't had a good relationship before, heck she had barely had one at all. She had no idea how to handle a boyfriend. There had been Todd Branston in seventh grade – they had gone out for two months, talked occasionally on im, seen each other only on Fridays after school when they walked into town, and hadn't even kissed. Great relationship there! Then there had been James, which was no boyfriend at all and barely a date. And Ben – well Sonny wasn't exactly sure what had gone wrong there.

Sonny wondered how other people did it. How did they not feel awkward together? How did they always look so happy? She envied the high school couples she saw walking down the street, hand in hand. They were always laughing about something, or kissing demurely. She always saw couples looking picture-perfect and totally in love. And here she was, and she hadn't even experienced love before.

Except…she did feel something when she kissed Chad. She felt like she had exploded, like she couldn't breathe. She had felt her heart beat in her chest like never before. She got shivers all up and down her body just thinking about it, and she wanted to scream. Was that love? No it couldn't be. She couldn't **love** Chad Dylan Cooper. How ridiculous.

He would dump her the minute someone else came along. He was a heart-breaker. She couldn't allow herself to love him, that was a funny joke. She was just going to have to hide these crazy, insane feelings for Chad.

Her thoughts were interrupted by several 'moos' coming from her phone. Sonny grabbed it and another text from Tawni popped up. She wondered what could be so important that Tawni would have sent seventeen texts about. She unlocked her phone and clicked on the little blue bubble.

SONNY MUNROE WAKE UP! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE SLEEPING THROUGH THIS GOSSIP MESS! CHECK ! THIS BETTER NOT AFFECT THE SHOW…BUT I STILL WANT DETAILS!

Sonny ran her hand through her messy hair. What was Tawni talking about? Sonny loved Perez, and he rarely said anything mean about her, and thankfully had never drawn in a penis in her mouth or anything.

She grabbed her Mac from her white bedside table, and quickly opened it and typed in her password. She rapidly typed his name in the header and scrolled down the website until she saw a post with her name in it. She gasped as she saw two pictures of her. One was of her crying and running of the office with Chad behind her and Ben's angry face could be seen in the background. The other one was Sonny soaking wet, hailing a cab after her kiss with Chad. She gasped even louder when she read the paragraph below to pictures.

Sonny Munroe is known as Hollywood's good girl – but what went down last night at the Condor Gala was anything but apple pie innocent! Apparently, Sonny was distraught from the moment she got there. Then, she and her boyfriend Ben Britt ran into one of Sonny's nemesis (or so we thought) Chad Dylan Cooper and his current girlfriend, Penny Holloway and Ben Britt's ex. Tensions were high as the two couples argued, and eventually Ben and Penny split off, and Chad and Sonny went outside. Sources exclusively reveal that when Sonny came back inside after "talking" with Chad, that she was, 'noticeably upset' and looked 'close to bursting into tears.' Shortly after, our source confirms that Sonny's co-star Tawni Hart, offered some consoling words to Sonny but then after Tawni left, our favorite good girl looked confused and in pain.

Then, Ben led Sonny into a room where people heard yelling and shouting. CDC apparently heard noises too, because he burst in there and firmly shut the door. The plot thickens…insiders say even more yelling erupted and there was some sort of crash. Then, Sonny burst from the room in tears and ran back outside. Both Ben and CDC ran after her, but CDC stopped Ben. Our source also claims that Chad looked like he was ready to kill Ben and for once not even thinking about himself. Chad ran out after Sonny, and the next thing we know, Sonny is hailing a cab looking as miserable as El Lay when it's raining.

So…what really went down at the party? Apparently Ben and Sonny have been on the rocks for awhile and it's possible that CDC contributed that. Sonny and Chad are known as enemies but it's possible that that could be just a cover up. Has Little Miss Sonshine been cheating on Ben? Is she more soiled than we could have thought? What went down in the room? Check back at Perezzlee for the coming news.

Sonny groaned. This really was the last thing she needed. She decided to ignore it for now, because it was the only thing she could do and still be sane. She pushed her laptop off her lap and fell back into her squishy cloud of pillows.

She glanced at her clock. It now read seven fifty-two. She had to be at work by nine, so she had some time. She rose from her bed, and slipped on her cow slippers. She padded across the hardwood floor of her bedroom and opened the white door that led into her kitchen/living area. It had been weird at first to live alone, but she soon grew accustomed to it and loved her little apartment.

She wandered into her kitchen and put the kettle on the stove to boil some water for some tea. She grabbed a box of from her cupboard and waited for the water to boil. She gazed around her apartment.

It was pretty tiny, only one bedroom, a small bathroom, a small kitchen, and regular-sized living room. Sonny's mom had been terrified of the idea of Sonny living alone, but since Tawni lived in a grander, bigger apartment only two doors down from Sonny and they both met by the doormen's post every morning before going to work, her mom had learned to live with it.

Sonny had decorated her apartment with small Sonny-like touches. The doors and windows were all white, but the walls were either painted a light yellow or sky blue. Her living room was furnished with a medium-size flat screen TV (given to her as a gift from Marshall), a comfy burgundy couch, a smaller white loveseat, matching cherry-wood coffee and side tables, and her pictures of all of her friends and family plus a few decorative pieces hung on the walls. The kitchen was simple, she rarely made full meals there. Her bathroom was the same way, just all white scattered with Sonny's makeup and toiletries. Sonny loved all lf the rooms in her apartment, but she loved her bedroom the most.

She had a her huge, comfy bed with her crazy flowered bed sheet. She had tons of huge white pillows on her bed along with a stuffed cow. She had white dresser and bedside table. Huge bulletin boards filled with pictures from her friends in Hollywood and her family and friends from Wisconsin.

Sonny made her tea in her favorite yellow mug and trailed back to bed. She took a deep gulp of tea and enjoyed the warm liquid sensation down her throat before settling down on her bed. She felt like her body was emotionally wasted, and she had no idea what to do anymore.

Her phone was constantly mooing, and Sonny finally got annoyed by it and grabbed her phone. "Hello?" She said into her phone. There was a pause on the line before someone answered.

"Hey Sonny." Ben said softly into the phone. Sonny's heart sunk. She had been expecting this, but trying not to think about it.

"Hey Ben." Sonny bit her lip and twirled a piece of hair around finger.

"So, we need to talk." He said matter-of-factly. "Will you come over today when you're done with the show?" Sonny was shocked, she had never seen Ben's home.

"But…I've never been to your house before! Or met you're family! Aren't these the wrong circumstances to meet you're family?" Sonny asked curiously, not remembering to be tactful. She heard Ben chuckle on the other side of the line and she got even more confused.

"It just might be the thing we need. I'll see you at 420 Half Brook Lane whenever you get off. I'll watch for Scout." Sonny could hear the smile in Ben's voice before he clicked off the phone. She reminisced affectionately of Ben naming her yellow Jeep 'Scout' because it was a tomboyish yet cute name.

Sonny glanced at her clock and was stunned to see it was already eight forty. She had to be in the studio in twenty minutes. She leapt from he bed, spilling her tea on her pajamas. She quickly changed, not bothering to shower. She threw on her comfiest, oldest pair of black Juicy velour sweatpants, a soft green cotton shirt that she had worn so many times the logo was faded, and chestnut knit uggs. She pulled her hair into a high ponytail, leaving her bangs down. She grabbed her favorite oversized Marc Jacobs tote and stuffed all of her crap in her bag. She grabbed her keys from her side table before running out of the apartment, locking the door and running down the stairs.

As she ran down to the garage, she wondered idly why Tawni hadn't barged in to press her for details or to wake her up so they could drive together. They almost always went to work together, trailing behind each other. She ran into the garage and jumped into her pale yellow Jeep. She threw her bag on the passenger seat and turned on the radio. Jack Johnson blasted out of the car and Sonny drove to the studios.

Sonny rushed through the door of the prop room, her hair and clothes a flurry. "Sorry I'm late!" She said breathlessly as she whipped a notebook and pen for sharing sketches. Tawni gave her an evil eye, and a look that said 'we'll talk later'.

"You're late." Nico pointed out, his tone slightly brusque. Sonny felt shameful as she took her place in between Tawni and Zora. Nico gave her a sad look, and Sonny knew he had seen the pictures of her and Chad. Sonny had always thought Nico has sort of had a crush on Portlyn, but Sonny had also always had a feeling Nico had a teeny crush on her.

"So anyways, as I was saying before someone rudely interrupted," Tawni stopped and stared directly at Sonny. Sonny held her ground, and gazed straight at Tawni. Tawni flipped her hair and continued talking. "To celebrate Condor Studios 60tth anniversary, So Random! Is going to have a two-hour long finale, with six sketches from each time period. Since there is five of us, we are each going to be the star and write one of the sketches and then co-write the current time sketch. You should have all gotten the email three days ago and presented a sketch for each time period, so let's go ahead and share."

"Well," Nico began. "I was thinking for a fifties sketch that we could do like a sock-hop or something. It's in early ideas but I think we could make it pretty funny." Sonny nodded and plastered a fake smile on her face, but on the inside she was bugging out. She of course, hadn't read the email and had no sketch ideas.

"Well I think for our 70's sketch we should do a 70's version of high school musical. It would be hilarious!" Tawni suggested. Everyone nodded, agreeing.

"And for out 80's sketch we could do a rock concert, and how some cool girls get in and some dorks can't get in and they try their best to get in and end up having their own concert outside?" Grady added in.

"For the 90's we should do a skit about kids going on the internet for the first time!" Zora added excitedly. Everyone agreed and looked at Sonny expectantly, obviously wanting to hear a 60's sketch idea.

"Uhh….well…."Sonny stuttered, trying her hardest to come up with something on the spot. Suddenly she had an idea. "How about we do a mod themed skit?" The rest of the group nodded. They chatted for a few minutes before dispersing to work on the sketches. Sonny was leaving the prop room when Tawni ran after her and grabbed her elbow.

"We need to talk." Tawni hissed. She dragged Sonny to their dressing room and forced Sonny down on the couch.

"Geez! What?" Sonny exclaimed, rubbing her now-sore elbow.

"What did you do with Chad last night? What happened with Ben? Why did you text me?" Tawni fired off, placing her manicured hands on her blue-jean bedecked hips.

"Ugh, nothing happened! I'm actually not sure what my relationship to Ben is right now and I need to go talk to him. And I should probably have a little chat with Chad too." Sonny said with a groan. She had finally admitted to herself that she needed to talk to Chad. She was still just as confused as she had been the night before, but he deserved a talk at the very least. They were friends…right? Tawni snorted, breaking Sonny out of her thoughts.

"Yeah right. I told you that it's easy for all of us to see that you and Chad have some kind of chemistry. It's impossible nothing happened." Tawni said with a smirk.

"Shutup Tawni!" Sonny squealed. Tawni glared at her, her eyelids covered with thick shimmery white eye-shadow and her lashes clumped with broad clumps of mascara. She had some smeared black liner liner on her lower lids. She had heavy bags sitting under her eyes, and her lips were a bright, chapped red. She looked like she had just sloppily smeared some makeup on or it was makeup from last night. Either she was always this haggard looking and the makeup just covered it all up or she hadn't spent the night at her own house last night.

"So Tawni…where were you last night? We always drive to work together. You would have been banging your first on the door and getting my ass out of bed so I wouldn't be late if you were next door. Where did you sleep last night?" Sonny asked, half-teasingly.

Tawni suddenly looked very self-concious. She smoothed her blonde hair and wiped something from under her eye. She ran her hand down her black dress which Sonny suddenly recognized a Tawni's "just-in-case" outfit that she kept under her vanity.

"N-n-n-o where." Tawni stuttered nervously. Sonny chuckled. Everybody thought Sonny was just another dumb, innocent girl from Wisconson but she knew what was went on.

"C'mon, you can tell me." Sonny coaxed. Tawni pressed her glossy lips together and shook her head. Sonny could see in Tawni's bottle-glass colored eyes that she wanted to spill her secrets so Sonny decided to go with a different tactic. "A secret for a secret?" Sonny bargained. Tawni lit up and grinned.

"Promise?"

"Promise." Sonny agreed. She was actually kind of happy that she now had a reason to spill her guts to Tawni. She needed to let out some of her pent up feelings.

"Well I was at the party last night, and Mr. Condor's crazy assistant Daisy pushed me onto this guy from Mackenzie Fallls. He's new to the cast and he's not like any of the other snobs at the Falls. His name is Aubrey Ryder. We really hit it off after we got our picture taken, and we hung out all night. I…maybe spent the night at his apartment last night." Tawni spilled, her voice bubbling with nervousness and joy. Sonny gasped but threw her arms around Tawni.

"Aw, Tawni! I'm so happy for you! When are you next going to see him?" Sonny questioned. Tawni's grin dimmed and her face grew grim.

"That's kind of the problem. I can't exactly be dating somebody from the rival show. You can't tell anyone!" Tawni exclaimed, her tone suddenly panicked. Sonny held up two fingers in honor.

"I won't, don't worry! But I mean, it could be a good thing Tawni. The studio is looking for all of the shows to be friendly to each other. Someone from So Random! dating someone from the Falls may be good." Sonny offered. Tawni shrugged her shoulders and gave Sonny a half smile.

"Maybe….but I don't want to be the one do that." Tawni said in a small voice. Sonny suddenly realized how vulnerable Tawni really was, and she was just like Sonny only blonder. "So anyway," Tawni brightened. "What's your secret?" Sonny bit her lip. She forgot about her end of the bargain.

"Oh, it was nothing." Sonny said vaguely. She took her phone out of her bag, just in case she had to fake a text in order to get out of this sticky situation. Tawni smirked and pouted her lips.

"Yeah right Sonny. Spill it. Now." Tawni demanded, any vulnerability from a few minutes ago completely invisible. Sonny squirmed uncomfortably under the pressure of Tawni's gaze. Maybe she wasn't ready to spill the details of last night just yet.

"SONNY MUNROE AND CHAD DYLAN COOPER TO MR. CONDOR'S OFFICE IMEADIATELY PLEASE." The loudspeaker in the corner of the room crackled nosily, saving Sonny from her current state. Sonny groaned inwardly, certainly Mr. Condor wanted to talk about all the publicity from last night but Sonny wasn't ready to face Chad until she talked to Ben.

"Will you tell them I'll meet with him as soon as possible? I have another….meeting that I need to attend too." Sonny informed Tawni. She had to get out of the studio before anyone else saw her. Tawni grabbed her elbow, her French-manicured nails digging into Sonny's arm.

"Sonny! What are you doing? You can't skip out on a meeting with Mr. Condor! Are you insane? We're all going to be fired!" Tawni screeched, Sonny smiled, suddenly having a breakthrough. She needed to do what she to do for herself. Sonny shook her head.

"I'm sorry Tawni. I have to go finish something." Sonny said with a wide grin. Tawni gasped, showing off her perfect gleaming veneers.

"Sonny wait." Sonny heard Tawni say as she was heading out the door. Sonny stopped, waiting for another lecture. "If you ever need anything from me, I'll be there for you. Dating in Hollywood is harder to do than you think it is. If I know who you are thinking about, than I know your going to get hurt but I can't stop you. But if you never need anything, from birth control to ice-cream eating partner than I'm here for you." Sonny smiled weakly.

"Thanks Tawni." Sonny managed to choke out before running out of the building. She once again jumped into her Jeep and blasted the radio. With a tear-stricken face, she grabbed her iphone from her bag. She quickly texted Ben and started her car. She had to do what she to do. She wanted all this shit to be gone.

Chad Dylan Cooper had just about had enough. For one thing, he was exhausted from a pretty much sleepless night thinking about those treacherous words he had uttered to Sonny only hours ago. He had already been in the studio three hours already, and the fluroscent lights were giving him a headache. He had to reshoot the same scene six times because the actors (mainly Portlyn), weren't meshing together well enough for Paul, their crazy but brilliant director.

"Okay guys, we need to do this one more time. Portlyn, I'm really looking for more emotion from you when you tell Mackenzie that you kissed Cole at a party, and you aren't sure how to interpret your feelings. Aubrey, you're doing a fine job, just keep it up. Chad, try and react more when Portlyn tells you. Your girlfriend just told you she kissed another guy who is standing right next you and she doesn't know how she feels about it. Show some emotion when you fake punch him!" Paul encouraged. Chad rolled his eyes. He was in no mood for some mediocre director to boss him around. He usually liked Paul, their longtime director was fun to work with and had tons of humor but he hated when the director got too somber and wrapped up in filming.

"Look Paul, It's hard to muster up more emotion when we've done the same scene six times!" Chad said crankily, running his hand through his perfectly- crafted mane. Paul gave him a sympathetic look, and ran his own hand stressfully through his chestnut colored locks.

"Okay kids, break for fifteen and then back on the set." Paul said. He yelled something into the small microphone on the side of his head and snapped his fingers and a petite blonde assistant scurried to his side.

Chad groaned and grabbed a bottle of water from the craft table and took a giant swing of water. He still didn't understand why they were filimg the finale before they filmed the "Back in Time" special to celebrate the studio's celebration. Aubrey and Portlyn also lingered at the craft table.

"Chad is something wrong? You seem..different? You haven't even looked at a reflection of yourself in like half an hour!" Portlyn pointed out. She put her hand on Chad's shoulder but he shrugged away.

"I'm fine." He took another deep gulp of water, and tried not to think about the girl with the lion eyes and the wavy hair that had some how entranced him.

"Are you sure?" Portlyn asked coquettishly. She drummed her polished fingers against Chad's chest while she fluttered her mascara-flecked eyelashes. "I could do something to make it all better…"Her voice trailed off suggestively and she grabbed Chad's belt loops. Chad just rolled his eyes and gently pushed her off. Last year at the wrap party, Chad had a few too many 'Mackenzie Mojitos' and had ended up making out with Portlyn. Ever since then, she had relentlessly been flirting with him and (delusionally) thought that Chad liked her.

Any other guy at Condor Studios would jump at the chance to bed Portlyn, but Chad couldn't be any more uninterested. It wasn't that Portlyn wasn't pretty, she was if you like that sort of look. She was tall and pencil thin, with no scrumptious curves that Chad adored. She had chocolate-brown straight but thick hair that was cut into hundreds of layers so it bounced when she walked. She had puffy pink lips and her face was always coated with gobs of makeup.

"Yeah I'm good." Chad said as politely as possible, but acid still leaked into his voice. Portlyn sneered, her clear light blue eyes suddenly looking evil to Chad. She pursed her lips, her pronounced cheekbones looking even high.

"Right, so this has _nothing_ to do with the fact that you are like, totally in love with that Sonny girl right?" Portlyn teased. Aubrey suddenly looked up from his phone in interest. Chad glared at Portlyn, but she barely noticed.

"Portlyn how many times am I going to tell you that you shouldn't try and speak – you cant chew gum and think at the same time babe." Chad retorted. "I'd rather lick the bottom of my shoes than be in love with Sonny." Portlyn stuck her tongue out at Chad before stomping towards her makeup artist who Chad happened to know was also her quasi-underground boyfriend.

"Little harsh CDC?" Aubrey questioned. Chad glanced at Aubrey and shook his head. Chad had liked Aubrey from the beginning, he was a cool guy who was pretty chill. He had signed on to bring the show's ratings up but had ended up staying because everyone loved him. He was easygoing and was focused on work but was fun to party with. He was attractive enough for the show, but not gorgeous enough to be prettier than Chad and threaten Chad's position as the gorgeous one on the show. However, despite the fact that Chad liked Aubrey, he was in no mood to deal with his do-gooder attitude.

"Whatever. It's Portlyn. " Chad shrugged. He fiddled with the top of his water bottle, wishing he could talk to Sonny but at the same time feeling sick at the thought of seeing her again.

"Well you could have been a little nicer. Anyways, it's good that you aren't in love with her anyways. " Aubrey said nonchalantly, typing away at his phone. Chad looked up sharply, his eyes narrowing.

Suddenly the loudspeaker crackled to life, blaring "SONNY MUNROE AND CHAD DYLAN COOPER TO MR. CONDOR'S OFFICE IMEADIATELY PLEASE." Chad ignored the announcement, no one could tell him what to do.

"Why?" He asked as calmly as he could manage. He didn't want Aubrey to know that he cared about Sonny but was curious as to why he said that.

"Because she's going back to her boyfriend's house." Aubrey said innocently, peeking up from his phone with a smirk on his annoyingly red lips. Chad glared at him with his fists curled. What was he talking about? Chad had been pretty sure that Sonny had broken up with that douche last night, and now she was going to see him? What was that!?

"I have to go." Chad said coldly. He spun around on his ankle and walked out of the studio, ignoring Aubrey's cries about the Condor meeting. He didn't care, he just needed to talk to Sonny. He couldn't get her off his mind, he wanted her so badly.


	5. Roll if Ya Fall

_Lately the sun is castin' shadow over me_

_So come on and take me by the hand,_

_Lead me through the trouble waters of the sea_

_So maybe you got a halo over your head all the time_

_As for me, all I need is this rhythm for movin'_

_Cause you know, I keep kickin' it live, yea_

_- "Roll if Ya Fall" Barefoot Truth_

As she drove on the smoothly paved roads to Ben's house, she wasn't surprised at all to see the well-manicured lawns full of colorful flowers and fully-grown shrubs that shielded huge stone mansions and expensive shiny cars. She felt extremely out of place in pale yellow Jeep and ratty clothing. She drove down expansive roads and finally parked in front of a giant house that was made completely out of pale gray stone. It had a sprawling lawn that was full of lush green grass and an assortment of flowers. Large oak trees dotted the property, and their large gray circular driveway housed huge multi-colored Range Rovers and sleek Porsche convertibles. Sonny thought she saw a glassy aquamarine pool and crumbly green tennis court in the backyard but the house went so far back she couldn't see.

She drove her car into the driveway and parked in behind a cherry-red convertible and turned off her radio, which was blaring "Rock'n'Roll" by Eric Hutchinson. She breathed deeply before twisting the key in the ignition to turn the car off and taking off her orange Ray-Bans. She was not prepared for any meeting of parents, especially since all she wanted to do was break up with Ben. She opened her slightly creaky door and swung her legs out and landed with a thud.

She walked apprehensively towards the giant house, admiring the beautiful landscape as she went. She walked up to the giant red door and pressed the little gold button. She heard faint melodic "ding-dongs" behind the door and scurried feet on hardwood floor. The door opened with a whoosh to reveal a girl.

She was pin-thin, with long coltish legs and an elongated torso. She had a short, white blond hair that was cut into a fashionable bob with Lady Gaga-esque bangs. Her paper-white complexion contrasted sharply with dark royal blue eyes and bright red lips. She wore a tight black shirt that revealed her lack of chest and her ribs. She also wore super-tight skinny pewter-colored jeans and sky-high studded black leather heels. Her arms crossed over her chest and her mouth formed a smirk.

"You must be Sonny." She said, her eyes glinting evilly. "Ben! You're ex is here." She called out. Sonny glared her, trying her hardest not to dislike this girl already. Ben came to the door, and gave the girl a look Sonny couldn't decipher.

He shooed the girl away before turning to Sonny and flashing her grin full of sparkling white teeth. He looked great, he wore a tight dark green muscle shirt and black jeans. His hair was perfectly tousled, and he wore no earrings in his ears. Around his neck was a thin black cord with a polished stone on it that was engraved with an 8 on it. Sonny had never seen him wear it before, but it looked good on him. She was surprised when he felt flutters in her stomach; she had thought she'd gotten over Ben.

"Come in." He welcomed warmly, grabbing her hand and pulling her in. "Excuse Annabelle. She's off her meds." He joked as he led her through his house. It was decorated in a Ralph Lauren type fashion, but surprisingly felt very homey.

He led to a large kitchen that was made of granite and cherry wood. A thick aroma hung in the kitchen air and Sonny breathed in deeply. "What's that delicious smell?" Sonny asked. Ben chuckled, like it should be obvious what the smell was.

"I'm not sure, one of mum's things. I'm guessing cinnamon, vanilla, and eucalyptus. Strange combo but smells great." He shrugged. He gestured to a black chair and Sonny sat down in it. He opened on of the many pots that were the stove and stirred it with a wooden spoon.

"Making me lunch? Since when can you cook?" Sonny teased. She had never known that Ben could cook. It suddenly dawned on her that she didn't know very much at all about Ben.

"He can't." A voice said in a thick accent that Sonny couldn't place. A tall woman appeared in the doorway, and her beauty immediately took Sonny aback. She had thick black hair that was full of body that was up in some kind of twist. Her sky blue eyes were so translucent that Sonny would have thought she was blind if she didn't know better. Her intense eyes were shaded by long, thick, black lashes that reminded Sonny of a deer. Her bow-shaped lips were plump and apple-red. Her cheekbones were high, and dusted with sparkles. Her nose was a perfect ski-slope and there were no freckles in sight.

She had a thin yet somehow curvy body, with long tanned legs. She wore a flowy white tunic and fashionable high-waisted dark blue shorts with bare feet. "Ben, step away from my cooking or reap the consequences." She joked. Ben put his hands up in defeat and came to sit next to Sonny.

"Unfortunately, my moms right. The only thing I can make that's halfway decent is waffles." Ben admitted. Sonny laughed and his mother laughed as well as she stirred something in big pot.

"None of my children inherited my cooking skills." She said. She continued stirring the mixture and then turned to Sonny. "I'm sorry we haven't met before, I'm Delene but please call me Lene." Lene said, holding out her hand to shake Sonny's.

"So nice to meet you." Sonny said, with as much charm as she could manage. "You have a lovely home." Sonny added. Lene nodded and turned back to her cooking.

Sonny suddenly felt awkward and out of place. She knew she didn't belong here and she had the urge to go and be with Chad. She tried to force Chad from her mind, but couldn't get him out of her head. His sand-colored, immaculately tailored wings and his beautiful, bright cornflower-blue eyes were the last things that Sonny should be thinking about. The room was ill at ease and completely quiet. Sonny hated awkward moments.

The quiet was interrupted with the loud click-clack sound of high heels on hardwood floor when Annabelle appeared in the kitchen. She now wore a dark blue leather coat that nipped her waist and she had a small black cloth purse in her hand. She surveyed the scene with a smirk before opening the huge sub-zero fridge and grabbing a coke. Lene gave her a daughter a look Sonny couldn't decipher before returning to her cooking.

"Anna why don't you take Sonny out to the porch while Ben and I set the table?" Lene posed it as a suggestion but it sounded more like an order to Sonny.

"Sure, why not?" Annabelle said with an evil smile. Sonny felt very small next to Annabelle and gave Ben a 'help me' look. He just nodded and gave her a little half smile, like she would be fine. Sonny followed Annabelle out to a huge deck. The air was surprisingly chill for June in California and Sonny could feel the nervous sweat on her body chill. The sky was an abnormal ashy-gray color and thick, lumpy white clouds loomed menacingly.

Annabelle continued to drink her coke as she stared out at the expansive lush property. "Mhmm I love Coke. You ever done the real thing?" Annabelle questioned, completely out of the blue.

"Done what?" Sonny asked, completely confused. Annabelle stared at Sonny, a scorning smile on her bright red lips.

"Coke." Annabelle said plainly. Sonny opened her mouth and her eyes must have bugged out of head because Annabelle, seeing how shocked Sonny was just laughed. "Figures." She took a cigarette out of her back pocket and lit it with a bright pink Hello Kitty lighter that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"So," She said after taking a drag from the cigarette. "Why is Hollywood' good girl doing breaking up with her boyfriend just to fuck with yet another arrogant but attractive costar?" She said plainly, staring at Sonny straight in the eyes.

"Excuse me?" Sonny asked, her hands on her hips.

"You heard me." Annabelle snarled. "What I don't understand is why you had to meet the family before you broke up with my brother?" She said with sort of a laugh. Sonny felt her blood boil.

"Okay first of all, it was Ben's idea for me to meet the family. And second of all, I really like Ben and I'm sorry that I don't have romantic feelings for him anymore. And third of all, you' don't have to be such a BITCH!' Sonny yelled, her hands balled up into fists. Sonny regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth when she saw Anna's expression. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!" Sonny apologized profusely. Anna laughed and Sonny stared at her, deeply confused.

"I like you Sonny." Anna said, putting her hand on Sonny's shoulder. "So don't apologize for saying the word 'bitch'. And by the way, I don't care if your gonna break up with Ben. He's a crappy boyfriend and he needs to get his ass kicked a few times by girls so he can become a better one. You seem too good for him anyway. " Anna laughed, taking another puff from her cigarette.

Sonny was shocked, but happily surprised. She had expected Annabelle to hate her, but she had just admitted she liked Sonny. And thought Sonny was a good person. "Thanks, I guess." Sonny said, when she finally found her voice that had been cowardly hiding. "But the thing is, I really do like Ben. He's nice, even if he's the wrong guy for me eventually he'll be the right guy for somebody." Anna nodded, her shaggy bangs falling into her white eyelashes. She was quiet s she continued to smoke.

"Bens a funny character. My dad wasn't around for our childhood. He got my mom knocked up, so he married her. He was an asshole, but at the same time he was a gentleman. Ben has tricked himself into thinking they were madly in love, but that's a crock of shit. He was never around – he paid the bills and sent cards on holidays while he cavorted with other supermodels and playboys. We were both affected, but in different ways I guess. I got stronger – Ben got weaker. He's overly dependent on his girlfriends and tries so hard to 'fall in love'. He has the genes to be a bad guy and he doesn't want to be so he tries so hard not too. But when he's trying not to be like my dad, he's still being a bad guy but in a different way. Mom's concerned, but I'm confident as he matures that he'll grow into a good boyfriend." Anna explained, taking another drag from her cigarette. Sonny watched the smoke as it curled into the sky.

"Thank you…for telling me that. It helps me understand him a little more. I hope he finds someone good for him." Sonny said softly, after a few moments. Anna nodded, and put out her cigarette with a button on her coat before putting it back in her bag.

"We should go back in." Anna looked Sonny in the eyes, and Sonny thought she saw a glimpse into Anna's world. Sonny touched Anna's elbow as she began to walk back into the kitchen and Anna whirled around.

"Look," Sonny began awkwardly. "I know I don't even know you, but just because your brother and I are breaking up doesn't mean we can't ever talk or be friends. I'm a good listener." Anna cracked a small smile and nodded before turning back to the kitchen. Sonny followed her step, and when they arrived back in the kitchen the table was artfully set and steaming food sat on colorful plates.

Sonny sat down next to Ben and for the next hour she chatted with Lene, Anna, and Ben. It was awkward at first, but once everyone got talking they were able to talk smoothly without any awkward pauses.

Ben politely excused himself and Sonny from the table, and Sonny thanked Lene for dinner and said goodbye to Anna. Ben led her outside and then instructed her to wait. Sonny sat patiently on the hood of her car, wanting this night to be over. Her iphone mooed and she saw she had a next text from Chad:

Are you really with Ben right now? How could you go back to him?

Sonny tried to stop her heart from fluttering, but she couldn't help it. Even a dumb text from Chad made her heart go as crazy as a Jonas Brothers fan. But that dumb text meant Chad cared about her, and thinking about that made Sonny's heart beat even faster.

Sonny began texting back, but as soon as Ben came out carrying a medium sized box, Sonny quickly dropped the phone. "What's this?" Sonny questioned, although she had an idea what it might be. Ben took a deep breath before answering.

"Sonny, I want to thank you for the fun we had. You're such a great girl and I know you deserve better. I realize whatever we had is over and it's mostly due to my actions and I don't feel the need to voice that our relationship is over. I hope you're happy with your life Sonny, and with Chad or whoever you choose to be with." Ben said shortly, but not meanly. "I have a box of some stuff of yours." He pushed the box towards Sonny, who put her hands up.

"Wait Ben, we aren't breaking up because of Chad. You get that right? We both have our differences and we're just not compatible. I still hope the best for you Ben and I really want us to be friends." Sonny said hopefully. Ben nodded, and offered Sonny a smile that looked somewhat genuine but mostly forced.

"We are friends Sonny." Ben promised. "Here's your stuff." He added awkwardly. Sonny waved her hands.

"Friends are allowed to keep other stuff that friends gave them." Sonny said, smiling. "Plus, I don't have any of your stuff with me and that old sweatshirt of yours is _really_ comfortable!" She joked nervously. Ben laughed along and set the box on the ground.

"Very well." Ben said. The two stood awkwardly and then Sonny threw herself at Ben and hugged him tightly. Ben sighed and hugged her back. Sonny pulled back a little bit and kissed Ben softly on the lips.

"Thanks Ben." Sonny said softly before pulling away completely and walking back to her car and climbing in. She waved to him as she pulled out of the driveway and out onto the street. She surprised herself by not crying, and she turned on the radio and Barefoot Truth blasted through the speakers.

Sonny breathed in deeply, and focused on the mellow lyrics while she drove off into the Hollywood night. She was so focused on not crying and the song that she didn't notice the shiny beamer lurking in the shadows, or the same blond boy she was thinking about earlier watching.


	6. Trouble

Im in trouble Im an addict

Im addicted to this girl

She's got my heart tied in a knot

And my stomach in a whirl

But even worse I cant stop calling her

She's all I want and more

I mean damn

What's not to adore

- "Trouble" Nevershoutnever!

Chad had imagined many different scenarios when he arrived at Ben's house, some involving Chad kicking Ben's ass and others Sonny tearfully running into Chad's arms completely vulnerable after a horrible breakup with Ben. None of which involved Sonny rejecting Ben's break-up box or hugging him tightly before kissing him. Chad was at a lost of what to do after watching Sonny drive away. He suddenly felt like his life was another show on TV and the writers had forgotten to finish his storyline. Should he still go kick Ben's ass? Where was Sonny going, and should he go after her? He felt like there were a lot of unanswered questions floating around in his head.

Chad turned the keys in the ignition and the beamer purred to life. He smoothly drove away from the luxe neighborhoods and into LA. He decided to go his favorite place where nobody ever recognized him. He drove to a small pier, far away from the boardwalk. It was a small, creaky pier that was three times Chad's age. It might have been brown at some point, but the color faded and the wood was now an odd grayish-beige color. Thick clumps of algae stuck to the legs of pier, and old ropes hung from its aging body. Small food shops dotted here and there along the beach and Chad grabbed a smoothie before walking down to the end of the pier and plopping himself down.

He swung his legs back and forth as he looked up at the sky. It was a deep, purplish-black that looked somewhat angry. He tried not to think about Sonny but he couldn't help it. He had admitted to Sonny that he had strong feelings for her, and she had pretty much shot him down. Chad had never admitted to anyone that he liked them – it was simply not something Chad Dylan Cooper did. He wasn't sure what to do now, should he fight for her?

Chad had a lot of experience with girls, but he still had trouble reading them. He thought that Sonny felt the same about him that he felt for her, but was too scared to admit it. Unfortunately, Chad thought that might have something to do with his past behavior. Sonny was probably scared to let herself love Chad because she didn't want to let herself get hurt.

Chad just had to prove that he wasn't like that, that he truly cared for Sonny. He needed to show her that he was willing to fight for her, to be able to with her no matter how long it took. He took a huge gulp from his smoothie before dumping it in the trash and running back to his car.

It was dark by the time he got over to Sonny's apartment, and the air was surprisingly chilly for summer and Chad shivered in his leather jacket. He wasn't sure if it was from the cold or from what he was about to do. He wasn't exactly sure which apartment was Sonny's but he knew what building she lived in. He smoothly parked his beamer in a guest spot and walked into the glass and chrome covered lobby. He walked over to reception desk, where a portly aging redheaded woman stood typing something on the giant silver Mac desktop.

He walked over to her with a confident swagger and flipped his hair. "Hello Miss." He greeted her politely. She looked up from her computer and smiled broadly. She reminded Chad of what Betty Crocker would look like. She had big, round chubby cheeks and dark navy eyes that crinkled when she smiled. Her skin was tanned but rubber looking and wrinkled. She wore dark red lipstick and her dyed copper-red colored hair was swept into a frizzy bun. She was going to be easy to get info out of all; Chad just needed to turn on his charm.

"Hello Sir, how may I help you?" She asked, her huge smile not wavering one bit. Chad leaned a little bit to read her name card, and she automatically blushed.

"Well Miss Jane I was wondering if you could give me the room number of Sonny Munroe." He asked suavely. He gave her a little wink and she giggled before she frowned.

"Well I'm sorry sir but I'm not allowed to give out tenants information." She said, her expression firm but her voice wavering. Chad flashed her his famous, breathtaking smile and her cheeks grew pink once more.

"I know that, but couldn't you do me an itty bitty favor and give me her apartment number? If you didn't recognize me I'm **Chad Dylan Cooper** and if you do this for me, I'm sure I could do something to pay back the favor." Chad said, his voice dripping with persuasion.

Jane pursed her drugstore-lipsticked lips; like she was about to change her mind but she shook her head firmly. "I'm sorry Mr. Cooper, I could get fired." She tried to explain but Chad just groaned and walked away. He began pacing in the lobby, trying to think of a way to get in. He didn't want to text Sonny, he wanted to surprise her.

"Chad?" A high-pitched girlish voice shrieked. Chad looked over to the elevator, where he was surprised to see Tawni walk out of. He had momentary forgotten Tawni lived a few doors down from Sonny.

She was dressed in typical Tawni fashion, in a loud strapless green dress that lifted up her chest and ended right above her knee. She also wore a long gold necklace, white-gold hoops in her small ears, and strappy gold heels.

"Hey Tawni." Chad said numbly. Tawni raised her eyebrows, obviously surprised with the lack of acid in Chad's voice and no snide comment following. "What are you up to tonight?" He asked dully.

"I'm going out with Aub- with someone." She caught herself just in time. "But more importantly, what are _you _doing here?" She asked. Chad shrugged.

"I wanted to see Sonny." He said simply. "But the lame receptionist wouldn't give me her apartment number." Tawni crossed her arms and smiled smugly. "What?" Chad asked, annoyed when he saw her facial expression.

"Oh Chad, I see right through you. Don't forget I've known you since you wore diapers and I grew up with you taking acting classes." She reminded him. Chad blushed, he had also momentarily forgotten that he and Tawni's parents were best friends and they had lived eight blocks away from each other their entire life. "I know you like Sonny, and since Sonny is my quasi friend, I'm willing to forgive the fact you're a huge ass because I know she likes you too. So go fight for her and don't break her because if you do, I break you. I know all your secrets." She poked him in the chest before strutting away in her high heels.

"36N." She said as she walked out the door. Chad grinned and loped towards the elevator. He was outside Sonny's door in moments and he knocked loudly. He heard a scurry of footprints and then Sonny opened the door. She wore a hugely oversized grey sweatshirt, a pair of blacks spandex short shorts peeked out from under it. Her hair was back in a messy ponytail/bun and she had a carton of coffee ice cream in her hand. Chad walked in without and invitation and shut the door.

He stared into her lion's eyes for a moment, not saying anything. Than, he rushed towards her and grabbed her waist. He pressed his lips to his passionately and she kissed him back. He pulled her tightly towards him and she moaned softly. Her carton of ice cream fell to the ground as she locked her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist.

He pressed her up against the wall and began exploring her body. His fingers traveled up her torso, and he felt her body shiver under his touch. He could feel the outline of her ribs as he made his way up her body. He discovered she was bra-less under her sweatshirt and he gently cupped his hands over her breasts. He gripped them softly for a moment, and then began to massage her nipples with his thumbs. She moaned louder and he grinned. He raised his hands higher and he raised her sweatshirt over her head. She was now naked from the waist up, and Chad leaned back for a moment to appreciate it. He gently grabbed her waist and took her over to the floor where he set her down. She grabbed his waist and curled her fingers.

He started kissing her body, starting with her forehead. She giggled softly, and he stopped and looked her in the eyes. He took in her face, appreciating her soft, porcelain skin and her red bow-shaped lips. He kissed her little round nose, then her lips, and then her chin. He made his way down to her breasts, kissing each of them firmly and licking her nipples.

As he reached her short shorts, she suddenly shot up. "What are we doing?" She said, her voice thick with longing and emotion. He sat back and shrugged.

"Whatever you want to be doing." He replied huskily. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it firmly. He stared into her deep, liquid puppy-dog eyes and she stared back. He saw that they were moving too fast and wordlessly reached behind him and grabbed her sweatshirt. He handed it to and she smiled and Chad knew he had made the right choice.

She slipped it on over her head and then moved over to lean against Chad. He put his arm over her and squeezed her tightly. "Chad." Sonny murmured a few moments later. Chad looked down at her, and noticed that her eyelashes were so long that when she blinked that her long, dark lashes fluttered and reached up to her eyebrows. "You can't hurt me. I can't hide me feelings for you, but you have to be the guy that I like not the Chad Dylan Cooper everybody else knows. I want to make this work but it isn't going to be easy." She said, her tone serious.

Chad stroked her hair and the two of them snuggled closer together. Chad started at his feet, trying to figure out what to say. "I know." He said finally. "But we can do it."


	7. My Favorite Accident

**you hit the road and left me an ocean**

**i can****'****t swim in the silence of your skin skin please let me**

**inside the time i had to forget you**

**inside no chance of us at all**

**- my favourite accident by motion city soundtrack**

The rush of hot water immediately woke Sonny up as she stepped into the shower. She was getting up ridiculously early to suck up to Mr. Condor for flaking on the meeting yesterday. She couldn't believe she had been stupid enough to just leave the studio, just completely leaving the head of the entire studio. Even worse, Chad had ditched the meeting to go see what was going on with her and Ben. Sonny smiled at the thought of Chad. They had talked for hours last night, about everything from Ben to past relationships to how they should handle the relationship.

They had decided to take their relationship public, because it wouldn't be in their best interests to hide it. Now, as Sonny massaged her hair with shampoo, she wondered if that was the right choice. She wanted to go public with Chad, but so soon after her breakup with Ben might not be a good idea. She washed the shampoo out of her hair and than lathered it with conditioner. She enjoyed the pounding water on her body for a few more moments before turning off the water and stepping out into her steam-filled bathroom.

She towel-dried her hair and was about to grab her blow dryer but she realized Chad was still sleeping in her room. She giggled at the thought of the teen superstar splayed out on her bed, snoring loudly. They hadn't done anything but kiss last night, but it still thrilled Sonny to have a boy sleep in her bed. She grabbed her makeup kit instead of her hair dryer, and began applying natural makeup. She was determined to look sweet and innocent in front of Mr. Condor instead of some crazy, dramatic bitch. She lined her eyes with Dr. Hauschka light brown liquid eyeliner and curled her lashes before coating them with Ecco Bella brown mascara. She dusted some sparkly gold power on her eyes and some rosy pink on her cheeks. She glossed her lips with coconut-flavored clear gloss before putting her makeup bag away.

She wrapped a nubby yellow towel around her damp body and quietly walked past her bedroom where Chad still lay sleeping. She grimaced when she saw how early it still was and turned on her coffeemaker. She giggled to herself as she saw the soupy pile of ice cream on the floor and went to the stick and got a wet and a dry towel from underneath the sink. She grabbed an oatmeal raisin cookie she'd baked yesterday and munched on it while she cleaned up the mess. She helped herself to a banana.

She poured herself two steaming cups of coffee and carried one into Chad. She set it down on the bedside table next to him and sip hers while she browsed in her closet. She perused for the perfect thing to wear and after about twenty minutes she settled on an outfit. She changed quickly and then marched into the bathroom to straighten her now-dry hair.

Chad awoke with a start, forgetting for a moment where he was. He smiled when he realized that he was in Sonny's apartment and got even happier when he saw the steaming hot cup of coffee sitting on the table next to the bed. He sipped the hot coffee slowly, and pulled out of his phone to check the time. He grimaced when he saw how early it was, 6:43. What on earth was he doing up? He wondered. The smell of coffee, a flowery perfume, and burning hair wafted throughout the apartment. At that moment, Sonny opened the door and she flashed a toothy grin at Chad.

"Good morning." She greeted brightly. "Now, does my appearance scream 'I'm a good girl, so please don't fire me'?" She asked. She wore a loose but tailored white sleeveless blouse with layers of multi-length charm necklaces. She wore a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and round shiny nude-colored flats. Her straightened hair was half pulled back and she wore a minimal, natural makeup. Pearls shined in her ears and she wore the 'BS' necklace that Ben had given her without the 'B'.

"You look good." Chad said appreciatively. "But why are you wearing that necklace?" He asked, his voice full of distaste. Chad buttoned his shirt up and smoothed his hair.

"Because I like it." Sonny said plainly. "Anyways, you should probably get yourself cleaned up too. We both have to kiss Condor's ass for a while for missing that meeting yesterday." She took one last gulp of coffee before setting it down.

Chad shrugged. "I guess so, I'll go home and change." He stared at the necklace for a second, wishing Sonny would take it off. He stared at his shoes for a minute, trying to figure out what to say.

"Hey." Sonny said softly, staring at Chad with her big brown eyes. "Come here. You know I chose him, not you." She pulled Chad up and close to her and kissed him. Chad kissed her back and slipped his fingers through the belt loops on her jeans. Sonny sighed with content as she explored Chad's mouth. "Alright, I have to go kiss some serious ass and you need to go shower." She said as she pulled away, and affectionately mussing Chad's golden locks.

"But we aren't done yet." Chad said, his voice completely serious and his face deadpan. He grabbed her again and kissed her more forcefully. She giggled into his mouth and wrapped her arms around his neck. After a few more moments of serious kissing, Sonny broke away once more.

"Go!" She said with a playful push. "I have to re-do my makeup now!" She fake complained. Chad ran his hands through his hair and grinned.

"You know you love me." Chad said, mimicking the girlish and mysterious yet slightly mocking tone from the show as he walked out the door. Sonny giggled again she quickly swiped some gloss over her now-chapped lips and ran to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

When she finally thought she was ready to go, she grabbed a caramel-colored slouchy leather bag that she had used when she had auditioned for the show and used now only for luck. She walked outside her apartment, and locked the door behind her. She walked down the pale-yellow walls of her building and was a little surprised to see a dark-haired cutie to be standing by the giant mirror that hung opposite of the elevators.

She eyed him curiously but didn't speak as she pressed the down button next to the elevator with a manicured finger. He eyed her back and grinned widely when he realized who she was. "Hey, you're Sonny right?" He asked. Sonny was a little take aback; she had no idea who this guy was.

"Um, yeah?" She said awkwardly. The guy laughed and shook his black hair.

"I'm sorry, I just realized you probably don't know who I am. I'm Aubrey Ryder. I work with Chad, he talks about you a lot." Aubrey explained. Sonny nodded, it finally clicked. So _this_ was Tawni's fling. He was pretty cute. He wore thick brown rainbows on his feet, dark jeans, a slightly wrinkled forest-green shirt, and a black leather jacket. He looked like a mixture between Taylor Lautner, Drew Roy, and Drew Seely.

"So, you're the one who's hanging out with Tawni." Sonny said, laughing a little on the inside as she watched him squirm.

"Oh yeah, I guess that would explain why I'm here." Aubrey said, his cheeks tinged with pink with embarrassment. Sonny laughed and he looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "Oh yes, Miss Innocent because it's not like I didn't just Chad doing the walk of shame ten minutes ago." Sonny gasped and playfully slapped him on the arm.

"Oh shut up! Chad and I didn't even do anything last night!!" Sonny exclaimed. Aubrey raised his eyebrows in a 'Sure sure whatever you say' kind of way and Sonny smacked him again. The two chatted happily as they made their way downstairs and into the parking lot.

"Wait, why are you going into the studio so early?" Aubrey questioned before they were about to say goodbye.

"I have to suck up to Condor because I missed a meeting yesterday. Why are you going so early?" Sonny asked. Her phone buzzed in her bag, but she waited to look at it so she wouldn't be rude.

"I'm actually not going to the studio just yet. I just had to sneak away so the paparazzi don't get snaps of me doing the walk of shame. They don't usually come out until eight-thirty or so." Aubrey explained. Sonny nodded, that was a good piece of information to know.

"But why are two so intent on keeping your relationship a secret?" Sonny questioned. She had never understood the whole 'secret dating' thing, and still didn't know. Aubrey sighed, and ran his hand through his thick dark hair.

"Sonny, you're new to the business and are totally naïve, which fine and it's even kind of cute. But you don't really know anything about celebrity relationships. Celebs often try and keep the personal life secret because our words are often manipulated to sound like something else entirely. We are such public people, everything we do or say is often showcased. If Tawni was to have a friendly lunch with a guy, the media would blow it out of proportion and say they were a couple and even go as far to say they kissed or something when they didn't. How would that make me feel? Also, the media scrutinizes everything we do. If they don't approve of the couple, it'll become the topic of the week and will on the cover of US Weekly."

"And if they do approve, what happens if the couple were to break-up? They would take sides and completely trash the other person. And you also have to think about your career, are fans still going to like you if you have a significant other? I'd love to go public with Tawni but we aren't even in that stage of our relationship yet and it's not worth it to either of us to take it public. We'd rather just keep it a secret." Aubrey explained. Sonny nodded, trying to absorb all the information. She was a naturally public person but at the same time she loved to stay home and just have quiet nights. One of her problems with Ben had been that they were too public of a couple but now she wanted to go public with Chad so they didn't have to hide everything they did. Sonny quickly hugged Aubrey goodbye before hopping into her car and speeding off to the studio.

The studio was much quieter earlier in the morning. Sonny wasn't sure how many shows the studio housed, but it was always bustling so she guessed it had to be a lot. Her show shared studio space with Mackenzie Falls, so she hadn't really met anyone other than people from the Falls. Sonny walked unconfidently into the Commissary, the large black building that was so friendly during the daytime suddenly looked scary and unwelcoming. Sonny found her way to Mr. Condor's massive office and walked up to his secretary's desk.

"Hi, I was wondering if I could speak with Mr. Condor?" Sonny asked the woman sitting behind the desk. She held up one finger and pointed to the phone that she was talking into. She was an attractive young woman, thin with short curly honey-colored hair and amber eyes liner carefully in black.

"Would you like to meet with Mr. Cooper or alone?" The woman asked when she hung up the phone and motioned behind Sonny. Sonny whirled around to see Chad, freshly showered and looking adorable. He wore dark jeans and a long-sleeve black sweater. His flaxen colored wings were perfectly shaped and a thick delicious boy smell seemed to seep from his pores.

"I'll meet with him." Sonny agreed, shooting Chad a smile. He grinned back and the secretary nodded before rapidly typing on her computer. The secretary waved them in and Sonny walked hesitantly towards the office door. She suddenly felt a hand grasp hers, and she looked up to see Chad beside her. He squeezed her hand, letting her know that he was there. She smiled at him and the two walked into Mr. Condor's office.

They both dropped their hands as they entered the office and sat down on two leather chairs that sat opposite of Mr. Condor's desk. Mr. Condor wore the same hard-business expression he always did. "So," he said with a smirk. "Look who it is. The two stars who think they can do whatever they want, including missing meetings." Sonny bit her lip and started to apologize but Mr. Condor stopped her. "I don't want to hear it. I have no time for your weak apologies. I'm just going to skip to what I was going to say to you. Our event was supposed to give us good publicity but instead thanks to you two, it did the opposite. Now, you both know we're celebrating 60 years of Condor Studios. We were going to do special episodes but I've decided to save the money. Instead, were going to have a special where all the characters from all the shows dress up in different time periods and host a TV special. Then, we're going to have a marathon of all the shows and then air a new episode of every show. We're also going to introduce our new show _Two Flower Mountain _at the end of the marathons. You'll also introduce the new characters of the show."

"Sounds great, I can't wait to meet them!" Sonny said earnestly. Mr. Condor looked at Sonny and raised his eyebrows. Sonny smile immediately disappeared from her shining face.

"I wasn't finished." Mr. Condor said, his voice dripping with menace. "Condor studios is going to be hosting a slew of publicity events to boast our ratings and to promote our new show that will air in the fall. After your little stunt at our gala, I do not want to see you two linked romantically together for a VERY long time. The press had a field day when they thought Sonny had broken up with Ben for Chad. We need positive publicity, not negative. You two are permitted to be friends of course, but the press must see you as only friends. I don't care what you two have going on but I want you to stop it immediately stop it." Mr. Condor's words hit Sonny and Chad like a slap in the face and they were ice cold.

The pair looked each other, both their eyes wide with despair. After a few moments of silence, Chad cleared his throat. "And what happens if we don't?" Chad questioned timidly. Mr. Condor looked Chad straight and the eye and smiled cruelly.

"Well then you'll be fired."


	8. Into Your Arms

She had the most amazing....smile.

I bet you didn't expect that.

But she made me change my ways. (She made me change my ways)

With eyes like sunsets baby.

And legs that went on for days.

- Into Your Arms by The Maine

When they finally escaped Condor's office, Chad offered the secretary a smile before pulling Sonny into the nearest closet. She looked up at him with those shining eyes the color of coffee and bit her adorably pink bow-shaped lips. "So what are we going to do?" Chad asked softly. He touched Sonny's swooping side bangs and put his other hand on her petite waist. She shifted away uncomfortably and Chad suddenly feared Sonny's response.

"Chad I like you." She said, looking down at her ballet flats. Chad smiled and brushed her bangs away from her face.

"You know I like you too." Chad said, tilting his head to the right and leaning in to kiss her. She leaned back to avoid the kiss and shook her head. Chad rocked back on his heels and tried to wipe the feel of rejection off his face. "Ooh, rejection." Chad muttered under his breath.

"It's just, is our relationship worth losing our jobs over? I have strong feelings for you Chad, but we have a love/hate relationship. We're a brand new couple, so things haven't even gotten bad yet but soon enough it's going to be cat and mouse, just like it was before. We could just stop seeing each other until everything cools down and than get back together!" Sonny proposed. Chad shook his head, disgusted with the situation.

"Fine Sonny. Whatever. No relationship for us. Personally, I like you and I want to keep doing whatever were doing. However, I think you're using this situation to break us up because you're afraid." Chad said shortly. He turned to open the door to leave when Sonny grabbed his bicep.

"Stop. You know it's not that. It's just, if I lose my job I have to go back to Wisconsin and go back to boring, high school life. After tasting the Hollywood life and being on So Random!, I can't imagine life being any different." She said. "I can't imagine life without being close to you." She added softly.

Chad looked down at his shoes and sighed deeply. "I know. I can't imagine life without you either. We'll figure something out, I promise." Chad said. He stepped closer to Sonny and swept away a strand of hair from her forehead. Sonny wrapped her long arms around his neck and rested her head on his collarbone.

Sonny breathed in deeply, inhaling Chad's scent. His sweater smelled deeply like freesia and vanilla, probably because of some fancy detergent his maids used to clean his clothes, but Chad himself smelled differently. His natural musk was very boyish, but he also smelled fresh and clean yet somehow spicy. Sonny would remember his scent forever, and whenever she would smell it somewhere else she would think of the boy she first fell in love with.

The two continued to embrace until Elsa Onell and Carrie Cook, two of Chad's lesser-known co-stars appeared behind the couple. Chad heard an audible gasp behind him and broke away from Sonny immediately. "Chad! What were you doing _hugging _this loser?" Elsa screeched in her annoying high-pitched voice.

"I wasn't hugging this Randomer! She tripped and fell onto me!" Chad insisted, his voice climbing a higher pitch. He rolled his eyes and painted a look of utter disgust on his face. "I would rather have let her just fall but I, being a gentleman caught her." The girls audibly sighed with relief and looked at Sonny with disgust.

"Well good. Come on now, we have to go get ready for the special. " Carrie said, grabbing Chad by the arm and dragging him away. Elsa grabbed his other arm and they walked away, laughing.

Sonny stared at the two girls, trying not to feel hurt. For some bizarre reason, she felt oddly jealous of the two girls. They were pretty in a Hollywood way, they were both thin as rails and had glowing sun-kissed skin. Elsa had long cherry-red hair that fell in wavy locks past her surgically enhanced chest. She had green eyes and freckles dusted her high cheekbones. She wore a short plaid schoolgirl outfit that exposed her fake-tanned legs and knee-high brown boots. Carrie wore her shoulder length highlighted blond hair in a stylishly trimmed bob with long but maintained bangs. She wore the same outfit as Elsa, but hers was slightly longer and exposed more of her fake chest.

She wasn't jealous of their looks per say, more jealous that they had such a power over Chad and they could do whatever they wanted with him. Sonny walked dejectedly over to the hair and wardrobe tent that had been specifically set up for the TV special. She sat down in the chair that was marked with her name, and two-makeup and hair artist immediately swarmed to her sides.

Two hours later, Sonny was dressed completely dressed in sixties wardrobe. Her hair had been blown out so there was a huge poof on top and than curled at the ends. Her bangs had been parted with a thick black headband Her skin was coated in some sort of powder than made her glow but didn't look caked on. She had three sets of fake lashes on, and every time she blinked the felt the massive weight on eyes. The lashes almost reached her eyebrows and looked cool in a freaky way. Her bottom lashes were coated with several coats of black mascara and her eyes were lined in sparkly white. Her lips were pale pink and cheeks were bright red. She wore a super-tight black leather sleeveless dress that a square of red leather over her left boob and white go-go boots. Chunky white and black bracelets jangled on her small wrists and huge sparkly red hoops hung from her ears.

She walked the best she could to the massive set, which was a collage of all different time periods and went to sit on a clear plastic blow up chair that she assumed was hers. She heard a whistle and turned to see Aubrey apparochaing her with a wide smile on his face. He was dressed in a tight black shirt and red leather pants. His hair was greased back and he wore some sort of eye makeup.

"Hey Aubrey!" Sonny said cheerfully. "Are you the sixties guy?" She asked. She hadn't known Aubrey very long at all, but she liked him from what Tawni had told him. Aubrey nodded, and the two proceeded to talk until everyone else arrived and production began rolling.

Tawni sauntered onto the set five minutes before they were supposed to begin rolling and walked up to Sonny despite the fact she was supposed to be on the eighties side. She wore a sparkly black leotard that showed off her impressive chest with a bright yellow leather jacket that match the yellow and black striped high tops she wore on her feet. Her hair curled with a copious amount of product and was pulled up into a high ponytail. White lacy gloves and thick, colorful gummy bracelets adorned her hands and arms whilst thick silver chains decorated her neck.

"Sonny you are so fucking lucky." Tawni hissed as she arrived in front of Sonny. Sonny shifted uncomfortably in her tight leather dress.

"And why's that?" Sonny questioned. Tawni rolled her heavily made up eyes, as if the answer was obvious.

"Because you get to be all sexily dressed and I look like freaking Madonna and you get to be with Aubrey!" Tawni whined. "I wanna be with Aubrey!" She stomped her feet. Before Sonny had a chance to console her, Tawni was off with a huff.

"She's right Sonny." Aubrey admitted, somewhat sheepishly. "You look smokin'." Aubrey said, staring into Sonny's eyes with his. Sonny shifted uncomfortably under his intense gaze.

"Thanks." She muttered before casting a quick glance at Chad. He was cast in the fifties, along with some of his other co-stars, Zora, and a few other cast members from different shows including the new drama _Two Flower Mountain (TFM). _Sonny and Aubrey were the sixties, and they only had four other co-stars who were two girls from the network's show about competitive swimming _Swim it or Sink It _and two boys from TFM. Tawni, Grady, and a few other people were eighties. Nico was nineties with five other people, and Sonny didn't know anyone who had been cast as the current time period.

Chad looked even more attractive in his fifties outfit. He wore tight light-washed jeans that were rolled up at the ends with thick black boots. He wore a super-tight shorts sleeved t-shirt with a stylishly beaten up leather jacket. His gold-as-satin hair was greased back a la Danny Zuco and his sapphire blue eyes sparkled even more than usual. He was laughing with an attractive blond girl, and his hand was on the small of her back. Sonny looked away, sad and uncomfortable. Aubrey caught her gaze and raised his eyebrows.

"So what's going on with you and Chad?" He questioned. Sonny shrugged her shoulders, and thought about how to answer that question. She liked Aubrey, but couldn't trust him. She decided to best option would be to lie.

"Nothing. He's just a friend, if that. I'm barely over Ben and I'm not sure I'm ready for a boyfriend and I was it wouldn't be Chad." Sonny said lightly, making it sound like she couldn't care less and didn't have any feelings for Chad. Aubrey smirked, as if he didn't really believe her.

"Well I bet you I could change your mind." Aubrey said, leaning in closer to Sonny. He smelled foreign to Sonny, not at all like the familiar scent of Chad. Sonny leaned away from Aubrey, not sure how to process the situation.

"Uhm what? What about Tawni?" Sonny managed to choke out. Aubrey shrugged and continued to stare at Sonny.

"Is that all you're worried about?" Aubrey breathed into her ear. "She's great and all – but not my type. She's too high maintance and prissy. I want a girl like you." He said, gripping Sonny's waist tightly. Sonny tried to shift away but Aubrey wouldn't let go.

"But I think she really likes you and I could never do that to her." Sonny said, her voice thick with discomfort. Audrey just leaned in closer.

"Well that's too bad, because I bet you're already getting wet for me. Imagine how much I could rock your world with a little action." Aubrey breathed into Sonny's ear again. He quickly scanned the room for people watching, but unluckily for Sonny everyone else was either filming or practicing. Aubrey ran his finger down the length of her body, his fingers stopping briefly at her nipple and again at the fleshy curve of her waist.

"Okay sixties group let's position our selves!" Their director Mark shouted. Aubrey sprung away from Sonny like she was burning and Sonny felt blush creep to her cheeks. She hated herself for enjoying what Aubrey had been doing. "Okay, so let's do pairs. Kayla you just stand next to Atherton over here and sort of lean against each other. Kiki why don't you sit on one of the chairs and Nate lean forward on the chair behind her. And Aubrey, why don't you sit on the other chair and Sonny sit on his lap and sling your arm over his neck, Okay great great! You're all superstars!" Mark shouted enthusiastically.

Aubrey sat down and grinned his wide smile at Sonny. She groaned inwardly and shuffled over to him in her tight dress. She sat herself down on his lap and delicately placed her arm on his shoulder. She felt a hardness in his leather pants and stiffened as he placed a hand on her bare knee.

Three hours later, the many cast members had taken a break for water and food. Chad and most of the MF crew had gone to their private catering bar.

He schmoozed with his cast for the minimal five minutes before texting Sonny to meet him in the prop room. He said goodbye to his cast members and when he entered the room, Sonny was already there. He locked the door behind him and just stared at his feet for a moment.

"What the FUCK was Aubrey doing you to? He's fucking dead. That little herb is going to get his as kicked. What was he touching you for?" Chad exploded. His voice was not loud, but dangerously low and angry.

"He said he wanted to 'rock my world' and he was done with Tawni. He asked if we were over and I told him we never started. What the fuck am I supposed to do? I should tell Tawni." Sonny explained. She was about to run a hand through her hair but stopped herself when she remembered her hair was done. "He touched my nipple and my waist." She added more softly.

"Did you like it!?" Chad asked incredously. Sonny frowned, looking guilty and Chad groaned. He felt like someone had punched him in the gut. "Well too fucking bad. You're all mine and I'm going to be the one to rock your world."

He grabbed her then and began kissing her passionately. They kissed for several more minutes, sucking on each other's tongues and exploring. Once the kisses got more passionate and heated, Chad gently reached around and slowly unzipped Sonny's dress. The leather fell away as smoothly as butter, and suddenly Sonny was standing her black strapless bra and lacy thong.

Chad stared into Sonny's shining, autumn colored eyes before unhooking her bra. He grabbed her and gently place her on the couch. She threw her arms around his neck and looked up into his eyes as he lay over her. He stared at her breasts for a moment before kissing them. They were normal sized, maybe a small C cup or a large B cup. They were slightly far apart but round and perky. He kissed them softly and made his way down her body, kissing every inch. He looked up at her before sliding down her panties. She nodded.

In an instant his mouth was surrounding her clit and his tongue was lapping at her juices flowing from within. His teeth scraped her clit and he sucked it even harder after nibbling with his teeth. His tongue drove in and out of her slit, teasing and lapping at my juices. She couldn't control herself any longer. She moaned and thrashed as her orgasm hit strong.

They held each other for a while before they quickly realized Sonny need to re-dress. With Chad's help she quickly redressed and slid herself into the dress. "Points for not messing up my hair." Sonny said with a smile. Chad nodded and kissed her demurely on the cheek.

"We'll make it." He promised, stroking her cheek. He loved how despite the fact her skin was winter cream, her blush turned it rose pink. She nodded and smiled. He hugged her tightly around her waist, trying to make himself believe the words he just promised.


End file.
